Serimmune, Inc., a leader in understanding the functional antibody repertoire’s role in human disease, announced this week that the company is enrolling 2,000 research participants in a study designed to understand the human immune response to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
The study, which will use Serimmune’s proprietary Serum Epitope Repertoire Analysis (SERA) technology, is designed to assess individual immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 from both natural infection and vaccination, and track those responses over a five-year period. This data will help researchers better understand how variations in antibody response may influence Covid-19 symptoms from very mild to severe. Participants in the study will receive access to their personalized antibody map, which characterizes their own unique set of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, and will be provided with ongoing information about their SARS-CoV-2 immunity over time.
“Our goal is to understand differences in immune response to infection by SARS-CoV-2,” said Noah Nasser, chief executive officer of Serimmune. “We will investigate how these differences may be important for immunity, the duration of immunity and for severity of symptoms. Deeper understanding of what makes an individual immune response effective will assist in the development of new vaccines and therapeutics for SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses.”
Legacy has raised $10 million in Series A funding round for its digital fertility business aimed at men. FirstMark Capital led the round. Other investors include Bain Capital Ventures, Section 32, Y Combinator, TQ Ventures, and Tribe Capital. To read more, click here.
Tomorrow Health raised a $25 million Series A round. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and was joined by investors including Obvious Ventures and BoxGroup. The company has also added to its advisory board with Paul Mango, former Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy at HHS and Roy Beveridge, former Chief Medical Officer at Humana. To read more, click here.
A Mercom Capital report noted that digital health companies raised close to $66 billion in venture capital funding across 5,500 deals in the first quarter of the year, fueled by $2.4 billion invested in the telehealth sector. Six companies went public in the first quarter through IPO and SPAC deals raising more than $1 billion:
- Signify Health (IPO: $610 million)
- Hims & Hers (SPAC: $279.5 million)
- Dialogue Health Technologies (IPO: $79 million)
- Movano (IPO: $43 million)
- Mednow (IPO: $29 million)
- MCI Onehealth (IPO: $21 million)
