Examining the immune system’s response to disease has been a hot new area in diagnostics – particularly when done with a single drop of blood, as has been widely publicized with the ever-evasive Theranos. Arizona startup HealthTell studies the immunosignatures found in small samples of blood to suss out whether a patient has certain cancers, autoimmune and infectious disease.
While Theranos’ methodology is cloaked in secrecy, HealthTell is making it a point to emphasize its transparency.
The company has been likened to Theranos before, in that the two are “out for blood” – using small blood samples to scope out a litany of disease. Except that while Theranos conducts your basic labs, HealthTell is after early diagnosis of cancers, Alzheimer’s and autoimmune disease.
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HealthTell’s language is pretty amusing: “HealthTell takes pride in being a transparent, data driven company passionate about sharing our diagnostic technology with the world.” Generally the opposite approach of Theranos, no? It’s also curious that HealthTell, as with Theranos, touts the ability to profile more than 30 diseases. While their disease targets are vastly different, there’s definitely an undercurrent of competition going on.
The Arizona State University spinout has previously said that it means to commercialize its diagnostics this year, and is in the midst of a new $5 million round, according to a regulatory filing. It’s thus far raised about $4 million, the filing says. Prior to this round, it’s raised nearly $17 million since 2013.
HealthTell recently expanded its offerings to rapidly diagnose infections and autoimmune diseases like Valley Fever and lupus.
