No significant trends emerged in diagnostics M&A or financing this past year, which did see the introduction of several government-funded initiatives, elements of which will bolster diagnostics innovation. As in other sectors of health care, the biggest question is how the incoming Trump administration could change US regulatory and funding policies.

Liquid biopsies – carrying out diagnostic tests on liquid samples such as blood or urine rather than on tissue biopsy material – look set to revolutionize the management of cancer patients. This area has recently captured the interest of a growing number of diagnostic players, both big and small, and spawned the development of different approaches to liquid biopsy. This article marks out who's who in this increasingly busy landscape and the key technologies that are showing promise, and looks at the obstacles that companies are facing.

A multibillion-dollar market is on the way for liquid biopsy, which allows the measurement of markers present in biological fluids, a repeatable method of disease diagnosis that could replace some invasive biopsies and allow clinicians access to tissues that have been inaccessible with current methods. Within this dynamic field, ANGLE PLC is coming closer to clinical application market readiness with its circulating tumor cell harvesting technology, as CEO Andrew Newland explains.