Foundational Platform
Intercept IQ™
The molecular substrate behind every Kihealth programme — cell-free DNA, beta-cell methylation signatures and AI-driven tissue-of-origin inference.
InterceptIQ™ Platform · European Division
Building the Future of Metabolic Disease Detection
Kihealth Europe is pioneering a new category of molecular diagnostics focused on identifying the biological changes that precede Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes, and metabolic disease — helping move healthcare from disease management to disease prevention.
Metabolic DiseaseType 1 DiabetesType 2 Diabetes
Up to 625
days earlier signal observed in research cohorts
87%
sensitivity reported in pediatric Stage-3 T1D cohort
0.904
AUC for Stage-3 T1D classification
12+
patent assets across EU, US & Asia
Performance figures reference Kihealth research studies on the InterceptIQ™ platform. BetaIntercept™ assays are intended to support research and are not yet authorised for routine clinical diagnosis in the European Union.
The Problem
By the time disease declares itself, the damage is often already done.
70–80%
Beta-cell mass typically lost before Type 1 Diabetes is diagnosed.
30–60%
Children presenting in diabetic ketoacidosis at first diagnosis.
Years
Often required to reach conventional clinical endpoints.
Beta-Cell Biology
The cell at the centre of diabetes
Beta cells are responsible for producing insulin and maintaining glucose control. Their dysfunction and loss are central events in the development of both Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.
Stage 01 · Healthy Beta Cells
Islet · β-cell
Insulin reserve · 100%
cfDNA signal · Quiet
The takeaway
Diabetes is fundamentally a disease of beta-cell dysfunction and loss. Measure the cell, and you measure the disease — before it declares itself.
Visual Timeline
Understanding the life cycle of a beta cell
From insulin-producing engine to apoptotic body — the seven phases that shape the biology of diabetes, and the points at which Kihealth seeks to generate insight.
Phase 01 · Healthy Beta Cell
BirthClinical disease
Phase 01
Healthy Beta Cell
What's happening
A mature beta cell sits inside a pancreatic islet, packed with insulin granules and tightly tuned to ambient glucose.
Why it matters
Healthy beta-cell mass is the foundation of glucose homeostasis. Even small reductions compromise long-term metabolic resilience.
How disease progresses
A reservoir — silent, sufficient, in balance with demand.
Where Kihealth generates insight
Baseline cfDNA signal is quiet. Establishes a personal reference state.
Phase 02
Functional Insulin Production
What's happening
Glucose enters the cell, ATP rises, channels close, calcium triggers exocytosis. Insulin granules release in pulses matched to need.
Why it matters
This is the engine of metabolic control. Pulsatile insulin secretion is what keeps post-meal glucose excursions narrow.
How disease progresses
Reserve is intact; the cell responds without strain.
Where Kihealth generates insight
Methylation patterns reflect a healthy, actively secreting beta-cell population.
Phase 03
Cellular Stress
What's happening
Chronic glucose load, lipid exposure or autoimmune signals overwhelm the endoplasmic reticulum. The cell begins making misfolded proinsulin.
Why it matters
Stress is the first reversible step. Catching it here defines the window for prevention rather than management.
How disease progresses
Function is preserved on the surface; molecular distress is already accumulating.
Where Kihealth generates insight
Early shifts in tissue-specific cfDNA suggest beta-cell turnover is rising.
Phase 04
Inflammation
What's happening
Immune cells infiltrate the islet. Cytokines amplify ER stress, oxidative damage rises, and signalling pathways tip toward injury.
Why it matters
Inflammation is the bridge between stress and irreversible loss. It is also a measurable, biologically distinct phase.
How disease progresses
The local environment turns hostile; some cells begin to dedifferentiate.
Where Kihealth generates insight
Inflammation-associated methylation marks emerge in circulating cfDNA.
Phase 05
Cell Dysfunction
What's happening
Insulin secretion becomes erratic. Mitochondria struggle, granule pools shrink, glucose sensing drifts out of calibration.
Why it matters
Glucose may still appear normal because surviving cells compensate. The biology has moved long before HbA1c reflects it.
How disease progresses
Functional reserve is silently depleted; symptoms still absent.
Where Kihealth generates insight
Beta-cell-derived cfDNA fragments rise — the platform's central biological signal.
Phase 06
Apoptosis
What's happening
Damage exceeds repair. Caspases activate, chromatin condenses, the cell fragments into apoptotic bodies and releases its DNA.
Why it matters
Apoptosis is the molecular event that ends a beta cell — and the one most directly visible to liquid-biopsy diagnostics.
How disease progresses
Total beta-cell mass declines toward clinical thresholds.
Where Kihealth generates insight
Unmethylated INS promoter cfDNA spikes — a fingerprint of dying beta cells.
Phase 07
Clinical Disease
What's happening
Sufficient beta-cell mass is lost. Insulin reserve collapses, glucose rises, and diabetes meets diagnostic criteria.
Why it matters
By this stage, the underlying biology has been in motion for years. The diagnosis closes a long, previously invisible chapter.
How disease progresses
Standard diagnosis. Management begins; biology continues.
Where Kihealth generates insight
Longitudinal cfDNA monitoring tracks residual beta-cell mass and therapeutic response.
The Interception Window
The biological window we have been missing.
Between the first molecular signs of beta-cell injury and the appearance of clinical symptoms lies a silent biological window — measurable, potentially actionable, and previously invisible to routine diagnostics.
- 01Autoimmune or metabolic stressPre-clinical biology
- 02Beta-cell injury beginscfDNA fragments releasedKIHEALTH DESIGNED TO DETECT
- 03Compensation declinesInsulin reserve drops
- 04Glucose risesMetabolic threshold crossed
- 05Clinical symptoms appearStandard diagnosis
The InterceptIQ™ Platform
One platform. Multiple diseases.
A shared molecular substrate — cell-free DNA, epigenetics, and machine learning — engineered to scale across disease areas where active cellular injury leaves a signal in the bloodstream.
See the platform architectureL1 · Wet Lab
Capture
Low-input library chemistry designed to preserve fragmentomic and methylation detail from picogram-level cell-free DNA.
L2 · Genomics
Sequence
Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing tuned for cfDNA fragment biology, with quality-audited basecalling.
L3 · Bioinformatics
Decode
Reproducible pipelines decoding methylation, fragmentomic and end-motif signal at single-molecule resolution.
L4 · AI
Infer
Multi-task models being investigated to jointly resolve tissue-of-origin and disease state, with calibrated probability outputs.
L5 · Clinical
Deliver
Physician-facing reports being developed under accredited laboratory standards and delivered through standards-based interfaces.
Pipeline
Programmes across the disease spectrum
Type 1 Diabetes
BetaIntercept™ T1D
Beta-cell unmethylated INS cfDNA designed to evaluate active immune-mediated beta-cell destruction across Stage 1–3 Type 1 Diabetes.
Type 2 Diabetes
BetaIntercept™ T2D
Multi-tissue metabolic methylation panel surfacing beta-cell stress and dysfunction long before traditional markers move.
Forward Programme
Future Metabolic Health Applications
Forward-looking research extending Intercept IQ™ into adjacent metabolic indications where beta-cell biology offers a measurable signal.
Featured Programme
BetaIntercept™: a molecular view of beta-cell biology
Traditional diabetes monitoring relies on glucose, HbA1c, insulin and C-peptide — markers that typically reflect metabolic dysfunction after substantial biological change has already occurred.
BetaIntercept™ is designed to evaluate biological signals associated with pancreatic beta-cell health, providing insight into processes being investigated that may precede traditional markers of progression.
European Partnerships
Built on collaboration across the European life-sciences ecosystem
Our network spans pharmaceutical leaders, leading universities, academic medical centres and reference laboratories — the institutions shaping precision medicine across Europe.
Explore partnership opportunitiesPharmaceutical
- Roche
- Novartis
- Sanofi
- Boehringer Ingelheim
Universities
- Karolinska Institutet
- ETH Zürich
- University of Oxford
- Imperial College London
Health Systems
- Charité Berlin
- AP-HP Paris
- Karolinska University Hospital
- UZ Leuven
Reference Labs
- Eurofins
- Synlab
- Sonic Healthcare
- Unilabs
Representative categories of European collaborators. Specific organisations are referenced for illustrative purposes and do not imply endorsement.
Why Kihealth Europe
Earlier signal. Better decisions. Better outcomes.
Earlier Detection
Measuring biology before symptoms — when intervention may be most effective.
Better Decisions
Designed to surface the active biology driving disease, not only its downstream markers.
Better Outcomes
Supporting research into disease while it may remain reversible, and monitoring response over time.