Celgene just made an equity investment Bay Area-based Sequenta, a biotech that’s developing a minimal residual disease test for blood cancer.
The startup’s ClonoSight platform senses the remaining cancerous cells in a person’s blood stream after they’ve received radiation, surgery or chemotherapy – indicating whether or not a treatment has been successful, the company said. It also has developed a LymphoSight platform that basically profiles immune system efficacy, characterizing and quantifying each of the millions of B and T cells in a single blood sample, the company said.
The new funding round – which includes several other strategic investors, Sequenta says – will bring the ClonoSight platform into clinical trials.
“The ability to measure depth and quality of responses using MRD assays will enable scientists to monitor the clinical impact of existing and novel emerging therapies in hematological and other cancers,” Rajesh Chopra, corporate vice president of translational development at Celgene, said in a statement. “Sequenta’s technology also has potential applications in the study of immune therapy approaches in solid tumors and immune inflammatory diseases.”
Sequenta, formed in 2008, has received about $40 million in venture funding to date – though biotech megacorp Celgene didn’t disclose its stake.
