A significant step in Attomarker's ambition to turn its science into medicine for patients who currently have very few answers
Exeter, United Kingdom, 7 October 2026. Synnovis, one of SYNLAB UK & Ireland's four NHS partnerships, has signed Heads of Terms with Attomarker to expand access for healthcare professionals in the UK to the Attomarker Long COVID Test.
For Attomarker, a University of Exeter spin-out, this is a significant step. The company's work has always had two halves: developing diagnostics that answer questions existing tests cannot, and finding a way to put them into the hands of clinicians. SYNLAB's laboratory infrastructure, quality systems and clinical governance provide that second half in the United Kingdom. SYNLAB is itself one of the world's largest providers of medical diagnostic services, present in more than 30 countries.
What the test examines
The Attomarker Long COVID Test is a specialist blood test that measures an antibody spectrum, examining aspects of a patient's immune response alongside routine investigations.
Among the patients Attomarker has tested to date, around 65% show gaps in that spectrum, a pattern the company describes as hypo-immune. Around 10% show an unusually intense response, described as hyper-immune. The remaining 25% fall into neither group, and in some of these patients other or resurgent infections may be a factor.
Why the distinction matters
These are not degrees of the same problem. They are close to opposites, and they point in opposite directions.
A patient with gaps in the antibody spectrum may never have mounted a response capable of fully clearing the virus, leaving persistent viral material to drive continuing symptoms. The logic there is to supply what the immune response is missing, whether through monoclonal antibodies or, for some patients, through the right vaccine.
A patient with a hyper-immune spectrum has the reverse problem: an immune system that is overactive and exhausted rather than absent. Adding further immune stimulation is unlikely to help and may make matters worse. The direction of travel for that group is immune regulation.
An approach that offers real possibility to one group may therefore do nothing for the other, or cause harm. Both patients may describe similar symptoms and both may be told the same thing, which is that their investigations are normal. Without a way to tell the two apart, support and treatment become trial and error across a population whose underlying problem differs from patient to patient. Providing that differentiation is what the Attomarker Long COVID Test sets out to do.
These remain lines of clinical investigation rather than established treatment pathways. The test is intended to inform clinical assessment, not to replace it, and decisions on investigation and treatment remain entirely a matter for the treating clinician.
What Attomarker hopes this leads to
Attomarker's ambition extends well beyond the United Kingdom. This is exactly the kind of partnership the company hopes will in time provide global distribution through highly respected, reliable and ethical providers, allowing Attomarker to concentrate on using its innovation capability to deliver a pipeline of diagnostics in areas of significant unmet need.
Work is already under way on immune stratification for persistent symptoms after Lyme disease, and on rapid differentiation between viral and bacterial infection to support antibiotic stewardship and the wider effort against antimicrobial resistance. Whether those tests reach patients at scale will depend on regulatory clearance in each market and on partnerships of this kind.
Comment
Prof Andrew Shaw, CEO and Founder of Attomarker, said:
"The Long COVID Test carries a UKCA mark in the United Kingdom and we are working towards clearance in other countries. Working with SYNLAB means UK clinicians can reach it through laboratory infrastructure they already trust, and it is the kind of partnership we hope will one day take our tests a great deal further. For a university spin-out that matters, because the more our tests are used, the more we can concentrate on what we do best, which is building new ones for conditions where clinicians currently have very little to work with."
One patient who has taken the test said:
"Having spent well over a year trying to work out how to cope with my symptoms, it was a relief to finally have some information to work with."
Media enquiries
Prof Andrew Shaw, CEO and Founder, Attomarker Ltd
andrew.shaw@attomarker.com | +44 (0) 1392 579479
About Attomarker
Attomarker is a diagnostics company and University of Exeter spin-out based at Exeter Science Park, developing rapid, multiplexed blood tests across immunology, infection and inflammation. attomarker.com
References for the Long COVID Test
- Analyst, https://doi.org/10.1039/d6an00659k
- Immunology, https://doi.org/10.1111/imm.70083
- Frontiers in Virology, https://doi.org/10.3389/fviro.2026.1837217
- Frontiers in Immunology, undergoing peer review, available shortly