Tethis

About Tethis

Tethis S.p.A. is a biotechnology company, founded in 2004 by Massimo Gatelli and Paolo Milani, headquartered in Milan, Italy. The company is focused on improving the reliability and scalability of in-vitro diagnostics by applying bio and nanotechnology. Tethis has developed an innovative workflow to integrate liquid biopsy into clinical practice for precise cancer management.

The company's core technology consists of the See.d® instrument and proprietary nanocoated SmartBioSurface® (SBS) slides. The See.d® platform is a fully automated, universal blood sample preparator that processes blood at the point of collection. It automates the separation of plasma, lysis of red blood cells, and fixes white blood cells onto the specialized SBS slides, while also making plasma available for cell-free content analysis. This process standardizes the pre-analytical steps, a critical bottleneck in liquid biopsy, ensuring maximum sample integrity and quality for downstream multiomic analysis. The nanocoated slides allow for the identification and characterization of rare cells, like circulating tumor cells (CTCs), with high sensitivity, even in early-stage cancers.

Tethis serves hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, and research institutions. Its business model is based on selling the See.d® hardware systems and the consumable SmartBioSurface® slides. The company has engaged in multiple collaborations to advance its technology, including a research agreement with Sheba Medical Center in Israel to evaluate CTCs in rectal cancer and with the European Institute of Oncology in Milan for a clinical study on the See.d platform's performance. Tethis has secured significant funding to support its development, including a €15 million investment in January 2025 from the Enea TECH and Biomedical Foundation and a prior investment from Indaco Ventures and Genextra.