A chip-based biomarker discovery platform that allows scientists to quickly and simultaneously explore the regulation of several protein targets has garnered $250,000 from a new life science fund.
Adarza BioSystems Inc. develops and manufactures a new multiplex immunoassay technology that can quickly identify and measure proteins in blood and other clinical and point-of-care samples, like a drop of blood. The technology is highly sensitive and allows researchers to run hundreds of tests on a single chip, the company says on its website.
Ultimately, we envision this technology driving a broad range of devices from future in-home diagnostics where the patient will self-diagnose illness with minimal physician input, to large-scale customizable research grade instrumentation.
Potential applications for the technology include disease biomarkers, drug and vaccine development, allergy testing, infectious disease research, agriculture and food safety.
This is the inaugural investment for St. Louis’s Cultivation Capital’s new life science fund, which launched last month as a follow-up to the firm’s technology fund.
It’s also likely part of $960,000 round of financing the company recently closed, with contributions from non-profit group BioGenerator, St. Louis Arch Angels and other private investors. As a result of those investments, the company, which was founded in New York in 2008, relocated its primary product development and manufacturing activities to St. Louis
CEO Rand Henk told the St. Louis Business Journal that the company would aim for a $4 million Series A round this spring.
