BioForce Nanosciences, an Ames, IA-based nanotechnology firm, has completed a $3.45 million Series A financing. The money will go toward expanded sales and marketing for the company’s flagship product, the Nano eNabler, a benchtop molecular printer that is capable of “printing” extremely small tests; it allows for the deposition of minute quantities of liquids at defined locations with high spatial accuracy and speed. The funds also will be used for continued development of BioNano Fusion products, being developed by BioForce’s new emerging technologies division. The division, formed in July, is dedicated to commercializing in-house R&D efforts and enabling collaborations with…
Author: Global Cancer Consortium
Vermillion (formerly Ciphergen Biosystems), a Fremont, CA-based molecular diagnostics firm, has closed a $20.6 million equity financing with new and existing investors. The financing, which comes two weeks after the company received a non-compliance letter from Nasdaq, will be used to further Vermillion’s three leading development candidates. The company’s most established development program is an ovarian tumor triage test, designed to distinguish between benign and malignant pelvic masses. Based on an analysis of over 2,500 clinical samples, the Ov CA Assay utilizes a panel of novel biomarkers to help identify women who have ovarian cancer so that they can be…
The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG), a public/private partnership founded in 2001 to grow Southwestern Pennsylvania’s life sciences industry, has added two local companies — Separation Design Group and ThermalTherapeutics Systems — to its expanding investment portfolio and contributed additional funding to a firm already under its wing, Applied Computational Technologies. The bulk of the $450,000 total investment went to ThermalTherapeutics Systems. The company will use $200,000 from PLSG to develop a prototype pump for delivering chemotherapy more effectively. ThermalTherapeutics’ device will deliver both intraperitoneal chemotherapy and intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy (IPHC) to treat metastastic abdominal cancers, especially ovarian and colon…
DiagnoCure, a Quebec City company that sells cancer diagnostics, has acquired Worcester, MA-based Catalyst Oncology and its lead prognostic tests for breast, colon and potentially other cancers. DiagnoCure, which will pay $3 million upfront followed by future milestone payments, will take over development of the tests, including additional clinical studies. The acquired tests already have been validated in multiple clinical studies involving patients with five tumor types, including breast and colon. Results have shown the tests to be strong indicators for a patient’s risk of disease recurrence, as well as predictors of response to certain cancer therapies, such as tamoxifen…
Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG), a regional organization dedicated to nurturing startup life sciences companies in Southwestern Pennsylvania, has invested $350,000 in three local firms — Falcon Genomics, Glucose Sensing Technologies, and Celsense. The funding comes on the heels of three other sizable investments by PLSG since May and brings the organization’s total investment in regional companies to $7.5 million. Falcon Genomics received the greatest share of this latest investment. PLSG put $150,000 behind the three-year-old company and its Cancer BioChip System (CBCS), a high throughput assay system for individualized cancer target identification and validation using silencing RNA. In breast…
GeneNews (formerly ChondroGene), a Toronto-based molecular diagnostics firm, has secured $2 million in funding through an agreement with an Asian Biomedical consortium. GeneNews’ most advanced product is ColonSentry — a non-invasive test that seeks to replace uncomfortable screening procedures like colonoscopies — but this latest funding will go toward development of a second product, for early detection and management of prostate diseases. “While our primary focus is currently on the development of our lead colon cancer product, ColonSentry, this non-dilutive investment will allow us accelerate the development of a second product in our Sentry pipeline,” said GeneNews CEO K. Wayne…
Infrared Sciences, a Stony Brook, NY-based company focused on early breast-cancer detection, is seeking $5 million in fourth-round financing, to further advance its Sentinel BreastScan technology. Unlike mammography, ultrasound or MRI, which detect anatomical features such as a mass, the Sentinel BreastScan uses infrared technology to identify physiological features of the breast tissue — areas of blood perfusion and angiogenesis, when abnormal cells begin forming their own blood supply, as well as temperature signs — that are often present at the earliest stages of cancer. Studies have shown that angiogenesis can start 10-12 years before a cancerous lesion is large…
A number of aesthetic startups from Boston and its surrounding areas may be hitting the scene at precisely the right time. That’s according to the latest edition of “Innovation Economy,” a new Boston Globe column about entrepreneurship, which says that financially able baby boomers and a lack of interest among large pharmaceutical and biotech companies are making the aesthetic market an opportune place to be — and venture capitalists are taking notice. The paper reports that by 2010, the U.S. market for aesthetic devices and therapies will reach $4.2 billion, up from $2 billion in 2005. “Millions of dollars in…