Ultivue Raises $22 Million in Series C Funding

Ultivue, the innovation leader in tissue biomarker identification and quantification assays for translational and pathology research labs, today announced the close of a $22 Million Series C funding led by new investor Northpond Ventures and fueled by existing investors including ARCH Venture Partners, 6 Dimensions Capital, Yonghua Capital, and Applied Ventures. The investment will be used to further extend Ultivue’s leadership position primarily through the expansion of its portfolio of UltiMapper™ kits with an increasing level of product customization. Ultivue will also significantly accelerate its international market presence with increased investments in sales, field application scientists and marketing across all regions with an immediate focus on Asia.

“We are delighted to receive the backing of Northpond Ventures in addition to our existing investors as we advance the field of multiplex biomarker detection and analysis for tissue phenotyping,” said Michael Natan, CEO of Ultivue. “This latest round of financing sets the stage for substantial growth and allows us to continue developing the innovation to meet the evolving needs of our customers in translational and clinical research.”

“The fast market adoption of Ultivue’s reagents and services is making an impact in the field of immuno-oncology research and we are excited to work together with the current investors to drive forward the mission of tissue-based spatial phenotyping,” said Sharon Kedar, Co-Founder, Partner at Northpond Ventures.

About Ultivue

By developing a single set of novel, proprietary reagents used both for biomarker discovery (higher content, low throughput) and translational use (lower content, high throughput), Ultivue is connecting the insights gained from research directly into the pathology lab. Ultivue’s UltiMapper™ multiplexed assays applied to tissue biopsy samples enable simultaneous quantitation of multiple biomarkers with sub-cellular spatial resolution and fit completely within traditional IHC workflows. Translational and clinical researchers leverage UltiMapper assays to elucidate complex biology and demonstrate their clinical utility as precision medicine research tools. Ultivue is expanding its UltiMapper assay product portfolio and menu of contract research services to provide a comprehensive set of precision medicine solutions for oncology research and focus in other therapeutic areas.

Source. Company News Release, Ultivue, June 27, 2019

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Sherlock Biosciences raises $31M to apply CRISPR technology to diagnostics

By Alaric Dearment

A startup planning to apply CRISPR technology to diagnostics has raised its first major round of venture capital financing a month after its founding.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Sherlock Biosciences said Tuesday that it had raised $31 million in a Series A round, led by Northpond Ventures and Baidu Ventures, with additional contributions from the Open Philanthropy Project and other investors. The company was launched last month with $35 million in initial financing, which included a $17.5 million non-dilutive grant and another investment by the Open Philanthropy Project.

The company’s founders are several veterans of the diagnostics industry and gene-editing science, including CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang of The Broad Institute.

Its stated desire is to use the new funding to “disrupt” diagnostics by developing molecular diagnostics that can rapidly deliver accurate and inexpensive results in areas like oncology, infectious diseases, at-home testing, low-resource settings and agriculture.

The company has in-licensed two technology platforms from The Broad and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. From The Broad, it has licensed SHERLOCK, developed by Zhang and others, and from Wyss it has licensed the molecular diagnostics platform INSPECTR.

SHERLOCK – whose name is derived from “specific high-sensitivity enzymatic reporter unlocking” – works by amplifying genetic sequences and programming a CRISPR molecule to detect specific genetic signatures in samples, releasing a signal when those signatures are detected. According to the company, SHERLOCK is able to detect the unique genetic “fingerprints” of almost any DNA or RNA sequence in an organism of pathogen. The INSPECTR acronym is derived from “internal splint-pairing expression cassette translation reaction.” It works through synthetic biology and synthetic gene networks and enables the creation of instrument-free diagnostic devices.

The company’s application of CRISPR to diagnostics is a departure from the more well-known uses of the technology, which have primarily focused on therapeutic gene-editing. In February, a Phase I/II clinical trial of a therapy developed using the technology in beta-thalassemia, run by Boston-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Switzerland’s CRISPR Therapeutics, dosed its first patient. And last week, a Phase I clinical trial at the University of Pennsylvania of a cell therapy sponsored by Mustang Bio dosed its first two patients, one with multiple myeloma and one with a sarcoma.

Source. Medcity News, Alaric Dearment, April 23, 2019

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