Member Article

Newcastle DNA technology pioneers close $8.42 million funding round

Pioneers of handheld DNA sequencing technology QuantuMDx have closed an $8.42 million funding round, syndicated with philanthropist private investors and Newcastle University.

The funds raised will be used to trial the Centre for Life-based firm’s ‘Q-POC’ device, expand its research teams and appoint an advisory board.

Elaine Warburton CEO and Co-Founder says “2014 will be an immensely exciting year for QuantuMDx as we demonstrate, in real-time, our ability to undertake 15 minute sample-to-result analysis for complex molecular diagnostics. Later this year when we formally unveil our prototype, we anticipate much interest from Life Science and Pharma companies seeking a low cost, high quality POC platform for diagnostics and to support drug development.

“Furthermore, we’re now looking to appoint a number of high quality, commercially minded but fun people onto our research team and also a number of key opinion leaders onto our Advisory Board.”

Jonathan O’Halloran, CSO, inventor and Co-Founder, added: “Most of the basic research was completed last year and we moved into an engineering phase to integrate these technologies and chemistries at the beginning of this year. We are now moving into the testing phase of our alpha prototype.

“Excitingly, we envisage these devices to be readily distributed globally due to their low cost, fast turn-around times and referral standard testing.

“With networked devices all over the world we will have a platform to monitor emerging pathogens and drug resistance hotspots in real-time; a concept we like to call the Internet of Life™.”

Field trials will commence early 2015 for Q-POC™’s first assays in malaria speciation/drug resistance, in partnership with NGOs and hospitals in several African countries, and a companion diagnostic for warfarin within the UK’s National Health Service, in anticipation of a commercial launch later in 2015.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .