University of Glasgow spin-out Entourage AI has teamed up with English Premier League football club Nottingham Forest on a pioneering study investigating whether blood tests can identify early biological signs that a player is becoming more vulnerable to injury.
The Glasgow-headquartered biotechnology company, which launched earlier this year and operates from the University’s Kelvin Campus, will work with Forest on a 12-week trial that researchers believe is the first high-frequency plasma proteomics study of its kind in professional sport.
The project will involve Nottingham Forest’s 25-player men’s B Team squad, with players providing blood samples twice weekly. Researchers will analyse thousands of proteins in each sample and compare the findings with training, workload and clinical data to determine whether specific biological signatures are associated with an increased risk of non-contact soft tissue injuries.
Challenges
The study targets one of football’s most persistent challenges. Research across European football has found that hamstring injuries account for approximately one in five injury-related absence days, while studies in English professional football have reported median absences of almost three weeks for such injuries.
Entourage AI’s approach centres on proteomics, the study of proteins and their role in biological processes. The company will monitor markers linked to inflammation, immune response and cellular ageing in an effort to build a more detailed understanding of how individual players respond to training loads, match demands and recovery periods.
If successful, the trial could provide clubs with new tools to support player welfare, personalise recovery programmes and potentially reduce time lost to injury. Researchers will also examine whether biological profiling could eventually help identify players who may require different recovery strategies despite undertaking similar workloads.
Founded by University of Glasgow Professor Patrick Gunning alongside Dr Taleb Sedghi and Dr Mark Lindsay, Entourage AI combines advances in proteomics, artificial intelligence and data analytics to generate detailed biological insights.
The company launched with a $5 million pre-seed funding round and has attracted support from Scottish Enterprise as it develops applications across sport and healthcare.
While the Nottingham Forest collaboration focuses on elite football, the company believes the underlying technology could have wider medical applications. Emerging research suggests plasma proteomics may help identify early indicators of conditions including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.
Prof Gunning said: “There are already published examples of how plasma proteomics could help identify conditions including cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s and type 2 diabetes. That is part of what makes the wider potential so exciting.
“It has the potential to be a significant medical trial in sports – with implications far beyond.”
Dr Lindsay added: “We’re moving soft-tissue care from estimation to measurement. We read the biology of the injury, precision directives guide every stage of treatment, and return to play is decided by the data. You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
The findings from the Nottingham Forest study will be reported to the club at the conclusion of the trial and are expected to contribute to a growing body of evidence on the use of advanced biological monitoring in professional sport.
The University’s active spin-out portfolio now comprises 34 companies, which have collectively secured £156 million in external investment, attracted £47.6 million in grant funding and supported 397 highly skilled jobs across health and life sciences, advanced manufacturing, digital technologies and energy.