UCLA School of Dentistry and Dongwoon Anatech Launch Collaboration to Advance Saliva-Based Cancer Detection Technology

Sponsored Research Agreement will provide up to $787,500 annually to support Dr. David T.W. Wong's Electric Field-Induced Release and Measurement (EFIRM) platform.

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By School of Dentistry Communications
1 min read

The UCLA School of Dentistry has entered a three-year sponsored research agreement with South Korean semiconductor firm Dongwoon Anatech to advance the development of UCLA’s Electric Field-Induced Release and Measurement (EFIRM) platform—a non-invasive, saliva-based technology designed to detect cancer and other diseases early.

The agreement, signed July 18 by representatives from UCLA, UCLA’s Technology Development Group, and Dongwoon Anatech, formalizes a partnership first outlined in a March 2025 memorandum of understanding. Under the terms, Dongwoon Anatech will provide up to $787,500 annually to support research led by Dr. David T.W. Wong, professor at the UCLA School of Dentistry and director of its Center for Oral/Head & Neck Oncology Research.

“This collaboration reflects our shared vision to make early disease detection faster, simpler, and more accessible around the world,” said Dr. Wong. “Dongwoon Anatech’s support brings us closer to realizing EFIRM’s potential in clinical settings.”

EFIRM is a liquid biopsy platform that uses proprietary technology to isolate and analyze biomarker signals directly from biofluids such as saliva, without the need for complex sample preparation. In prior studies, Dr. Wong’s team demonstrated EFIRM’s ability to identify tumor-specific mutations in saliva with high sensitivity and specificity, particularly for non-small cell lung cancer.

The new research effort will begin with optimizing various protocols for Dongwoon Anatech’s saliva-based glucose monitoring system, D-SaLife®, in patients with and without diabetes, using clinical samples from hospitals in both the U.S. and South Korea. Later phases will focus on the development and clinical validation of EFIRM I, a fully automated diagnostic device designed to detect salivary biomarkers for cancers such as lung, gastric, and oral cancer.

UCLA and Dongwoon Anatech also plan to co-develop EFIRM II, a next-generation platform incorporating semiconductor-based design and compact diagnostic cartridges, laying the groundwork for scalable manufacturing and point-of-care use.

Dr. Wong has received more than $29 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health and other agencies to support EFIRM research since 2002.

The agreement was signed by Dr. Wong; Dongwoon Anatech CEO Dong-Cheol Kim; UCLA Technology Development Group (TDG) Associate Vice Chancellor, CEO and President Amir Naiberg; and TDG Business Development Officer Thibault Renac.