D-Tails s.r.l. SB - Company Profile

D-Tails SB is an Italian deep-tech life science company building a data-generating platform for AI-ready human biology, with early cancer detection as its first clinical application.

Our technology combines living biological sensing, advanced optical readout, and AI-based behavioral interpretation to identify cancer-related olfactory signatures in urine. The platform generates a class of structured biological data that is largely missing from the AI-for-biology landscape today, opening multiple downstream applications beyond the first product. The clinical goal is to make early cancer screening faster, less invasive, and more accessible, shifting from complex, centralized diagnostics to population-scale solutions.

The technology has been developed over more than five years of R&D and is protected by a growing patent portfolio. The first biological approach, based on living olfactory models, has produced promising early results in experimental settings, with reported accuracy of up to 91 percent. We have also identified a panel of cancer-sensing olfactory receptors that form the basis for the next development phase, a multiplexed receptor-based readout capable of producing a cancer-risk fingerprint from a urine sample.

The platform is designed around three core advantages: non-invasive sampling, rapid readout, and low-cost scalability. Unlike most emerging cancer screening solutions, which rely on blood-based or complex molecular workflows, D-Tails focuses on urine as a patient-friendly and operationally scalable biological matrix. This makes the technology particularly relevant for preventive screening, large-scale healthcare programmes, and future point-of-care deployment.

The company has developed its own proprietary instrumentation and assay know-how, and is now entering a scale-up phase supported by European funding. In particular, D-Tails is the coordinator of ULYSSES, an EIC Pathfinder Open project starting in May 2026, with a four-partner European consortium covering the full pre-clinical validation pipeline. The company’s roadmap covers pre-clinical and clinical validation, CE-IVD regulatory preparation, manufacturing scale-up, and the gradual transition from a laboratory service model to a product-based deployment.

D-Tails is currently preparing a double-digit million-euro funding round to accelerate clinical validation, regulatory preparation, manufacturing readiness, and R&D optimization. The objective is to build a robust clinical dataset, progress toward CE-IVD submission, position D-Tails as a European reference player in accessible early cancer detection, and open the platform to broader applications in AI-driven human biology.

The company is led by an experienced board and scientific team combining expertise in life sciences, photonics, engineering, intellectual property, and corporate finance. Its broader ecosystem includes leading academic, clinical, and research institutions in Europe, supporting D-Tails’ mission to transform early cancer detection into a more preventive, inclusive, and scalable component of healthcare.