Can we read the tiny messages our cells send to anticipate illness? How intellectual property is helping Lumnora bring scientific research to market
Every day, our cells send out tiny messages throughout our bodies. What if we could read those messages and detect changes linked to disease before they become visible through symptoms?
That is the question at the heart of Lumnora, an Italian deep-tech start-up developing technology to make some of the body's smallest biological messengers easier to see and understand.
In healthcare, being able to detect and characterize subtle biological changes could open new possibilities for research, diagnostics and the development of therapies for many illnesses and diseases. Cancer is one such area: in 2022, around 20 million people were diagnosed with cancer worldwide and 9.7 million died from the disease, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.1 By 2050, the number of new cancer cases each year is projected to reach 35 million.2
Early detection can improve the chance of successful treatment.3
This is where physicist Giulio Coccia and his team at Lumnora see an opportunity.
The company is developing technology to study extracellular vesicles (EVs), tiny particles released by cells into body fluids. EVs carry biological information, including proteins and genetic material, and could provide clues about what is happening inside our bodies.
There is just one problem: they are extremely small and difficult to analyze reliably.
Lumnora is developing a platform that combines advanced imaging, specially designed chips and artificial intelligence to detect and study these particles, with the aim of making the process faster, more reliable and easier to standardize.
An unconventional startup
Lumnora did not begin as a conventional startup, but with a European research project.
Lumnora grew out of nanoSCAN, a European Innovation Council (EIC) Transition-funded project bringing together researchers and industry partners from across Europe to develop new imaging technologies.
Among the project’s results were photonic chips developed by research groups at Politecnico di Milano and the National Research Council's Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies (IFN-CNR).
The chips were designed to help scientists see and measure extremely small biological structures. As the technology developed, the researchers began asking a practical question: where could it make a real difference?They found an opportunity in extracellular vesicles, whose potential in diagnostics and therapeutics is attracting growing scientific interest.
In 2025, Lumnora was created as a spin-off of Politecnico di Milano and CNR, giving the team a way to take the technology beyond the laboratory and develop it as a company.For Coccia, that transition was also personal.
A physicist by training, he began his PhD in Vienna, where he spent two to three years working on ultrafast science. He then decided to leave that program and start a new PhD in Milan, funded through a Marie Curie ITN grant from the European Union, focusing on the development of quantum devices.
The move reflected his growing interest in more applied research with the potential for real-world impact, which had attracted him since his master’s studies.
“I’m a curious person, and I like my work to give meaning to the world,” he says. “I thought research was a good way to have impact, but it’s not really the best way.”
His experience working on market opportunities for technologies coming out of research showed him that moving from the laboratory to the real world requires a different mindset.
“There’s a gap between the researcher’s mindset and the entrepreneurial mindset: it’s one thing to think that something can be useful, and another to actually find a way to make it possible.”
Protecting the technology
Turning research into a company brings another challenge: intellectual property (IP).
Lumnora already had two patents covering its core technology. However, much of the research behind the company had been developed through long-standing collaborations involving Politecnico di Milano and the Italian National Research Council.
As Lumnora began exploring commercial partnerships, the team needed to understand what it owned, what could be licensed and how its IP could be managed as the technology developed further.
“We are researchers. IP is fundamental,” says Coccia. “Our company was born from innovation and patents.”
Lumnora joined the WIPO IP Management Clinic to help answer those questions.
The Clinic helped the team gain a clearer understanding of the IP it already had and how it could use it. It also helped Lumnora formalize licensing arrangements with the university and become better prepared for the co-development agreements that will be increasingly important as the company works with external partners.
The experience also changed how the team thinks about its competitive advantage. Patents are one of Lumnora’s protected IP rights, but they are also building value through their know-how, software and data.
For Lumnora, IP has become part of the foundation for building partnerships, structuring co-development projects and creating a sustainable competitive advantage which helps take the technology beyond the laboratory.
From lab to market
Lumnora has since taken part in accelerator programmes, received recognition in start-up competitions and is now fundraising while continuing to develop and validate its technology.
There is still a long road from a promising technology to something that can be used in healthcare. The technology needs to be tested, validated and, where necessary, meet regulatory requirements.
However, the direction is clear.
For Coccia, the experience has reinforced what it takes to turn deep-tech research into something that can reach the world. Lumnora is now trying to bridge that gap: taking technology developed through European research, applying it to a pressing biomedical challenge and building the IP and partnerships needed to move it towards the market.
The goal is simple to describe, even if the science behind it is not: to make the body's tiniest messages easier to read and see what they can tell us about our health.
About WIPO’s IP Management Clinic
WIPO’s IP Management Clinic helps innovative startups and SMEs develop and implement their IP strategies aligned with their business goals. Through personalized mentoring, expert advice and training, the clinics help companies identify, protect, manage and leverage their intellectual property and other intangible assets to support business growth and competitiveness.