The 10¹⁰ Problem

Blood plasma contains thousands of proteins spanning an extraordinary ten-billion-fold concentration range. Albumin alone accounts for over half of total protein mass, while the most informative biomarkers — the ones that signal early disease — exist at concentrations a billion times lower. Current mass spectrometry can only see across four orders of magnitude. The result: over 90% of the proteome is invisible.

Detector Saturation & Ion Suppression

A single mass spectrometry run of unfractionated plasma is dominated by albumin. The detector saturates, ion suppression buries mid-abundance proteins, and thousands of clinically important biomarkers fall below the noise floor. LuciDrop's kinetic fractionation progressively removes this interference — fraction by fraction — until even trace-level proteins emerge above background.

Kinetic Fractionation

LuciDrop uses a proprietary multi-stage fractionation process to separate plasma proteins by abundance before they reach the mass spectrometer. Each stage compresses the dynamic range into a window the instrument can resolve — making the invisible visible.

From Sample to Discovery

LuciDrop transforms a 10 µL blood sample into the deepest plasma proteome dataset available today. This depth unlocks applications that were previously impossible with existing sample preparation technologies.

Better Data. Better Discovery.

augurus.ai is our computational intelligence platform, purpose-built to extract maximum biological insight from the unprecedented depth of LuciDrop proteomics data.

When you can see 14,000+ proteins instead of 900, you don't just see more — you see differently. Patterns emerge that were invisible before. Disease signatures become resolvable. Drug targets reveal themselves. But exploiting this depth demands computational approaches designed for the unique characteristics of deep proteome data.

augurus.ai combines advanced machine learning with deep domain expertise in proteomics to accelerate the path from raw mass spectrometry data to actionable biological insight — identifying candidate biomarkers, nominating drug targets, and building predictive models for clinical decision-making.

Precision Medicine Enabled

LuciDrop and augurus.ai together create a vertically integrated platform for proteomics-driven precision medicine — from sample preparation through AI-powered analysis to clinical application.

Our Team

Ijeoma Uchegbu

DBE FMedSci FRSC

Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at UCL and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Over 25 years pioneering nanoparticle drug delivery systems. Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Wellcome Trust Board member.

Andreas Schätzlein

PhD

Co-founder & CEO

Pharmaceutical scientist and serial biotech entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience translating university research into clinical-stage companies. Co-founded Nanomerics (clinical-stage drug delivery) and now leads AugurusBio’s commercial and strategic direction.

JH

Jiajin He

PhD

Inventor & Lead Scientist

Inventor of the LuciDrop platform. Doctoral research at UCL focused on nanoparticle-based plasma proteomics fractionation, achieving record-breaking proteome depth from minimal sample volumes.