More funding on the books for Yale spinout Isoplexis: It just raised $2.4 million of a potential $3.8 million round, according to a regulatory filing.
The startup’s developing an assay that helps researchers better understand immune response – and how therapies impact individual patients on a cellular level.
The startup is developing a single cell immunoassay device that provides a broader understanding of immune and cancer cell activity. It’s meant to help researchers and drug developers make more informed decisions about vaccines and drug efficacy, the company says, taking into account the body’s complex immune response.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
It has a patent-pending “biochip” technology that analyzes and “fingerprints” single cells, studying their excretion of a number of proteins like cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. This, in turn, helps construct “a highly accurate picture of how pathogens, drugs and biologics impact and interact with the immune system.”
IsoPlexis plans to apply its technology to help monitor immune response, evaluate vaccine response and conduct stem cell research. The immunoassay could have use in personalized medicine, stem cell research and oncology, the company said.
The technology comes from Yale professor Rong Fan.
Isoplexis raised $1.3 million last August, MedCity News reported.
