Manchester scientist lands prestigious British Council UK Alumni award

The founder of medtech start up ErleaDx has won the Business and Innovation category at the 2021 – 2022 British Council Study UK awards.

Dr. Na Yu (Cherry) Chia, who is working with the world’s best doctors to develop a ground breaking early detection test for lung cancer, beat off stiff competition to land the accolade.

She was presented with her award at a ceremony in Singapore earlier this month.

Dr. Chia has been supported by the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre on her enterprise journey after her studies at the University of Manchester. Her pioneering work on a blood-based test to pick up lung cancer in its early stages is now attracting attention from the global scientific community.

She is currently working on product development and clinical recruitment for the Mirlung Dx lung cancer detector and hopes to have a prototype available to UK lung cancer patients by 2023.

ErleaDx's goal is to develop a handheld device for lung cancer detection which works in a similar way to glucose testing meters for diabetics.

Dr. Chia was one of the winners of the 2021 Venture Further Business Start-up Competition in the healthcare category for this early lung cancer detection project. Venture Further is the flagship annual start-up competition for all current students and recent graduates across the University of Manchester.