SAN FRANCISCO, May 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- MIODx, a pioneer in biomarker discovery, announced today the close of the $1.5 million dollar seed round. "We're very excited to have completed our seed round and execute on the company's strategic plan," said Sean Givens, the company's COO and co-founder. "This tranche of funding will allow MIODx to complete the clinical utility study for our VerifyDx Prostate Cancer test and begin commercialization of this much needed test," he added.
VerifyDx is an oncology testing platform that utilizes a highly multiplexed assay to interrogate expression levels of biomarkers implicated in cancer aggressiveness. "Unlike tests today that only interrogate biomarkers in a single genomic pathway such as oncogene or methylation only, the VerifyDx test looks at biomarkers across four different genomic pathways and then applies a proprietary algorithm that provides better insight into the aggressiveness of a patient's tumor," explained Allen Northrup MIODx's CEO. "We started with prostate cancer because the current state of testing is not adequate for properly identifying which patients should undergo a radical prostatectomy from those that should be on watchful waiting," he added. The company plans to launch additional VerifyDx tests including colon, lung, and kidney following the commercialization of the prostate test.
MIODx is also developing, and has IP surrounding, the sequencing of T cell repertoires. The company has stated that the first application of the TCR sequencing will be in immuno-oncology. "Harnessing the immune system to fight cancer has been a complete game changer in the fight against cancer, but not everyone responds and many suffer immune related responses to the therapy. Our test will help doctors identify patients that will respond to a certain therapy and which ones might suffer and adverse event," Northrup stated. The company is already in early discussions about using the test as a companion diagnostic for immuno-oncology therapies.
MIODx also announced today that they have entered into a lease for 3,000 sqft at the San Jose BioCube. "We are happy to be part of the family of companies that call or have called the San Jose BioCube home. With a history of successful companies such as Ariosa Diagnostics, Geneweave and Genia, we hope to continue the record of success," Givens stated.
About MIODx
MIODx are pioneers in the discovery of early detection and prognostic cancer biomarkers through the company's proprietary platforms. The company's VerifyDx™ platform utilizes a multiplex PCR assay and advanced bioinformatics to interrogate multiple DNA and RNA pathways that are implicated in highly metastatic cancer. In addition to the VerifyDx™ platform, MIODx utilizes high throughput immunosequencing to generate information on T and B cell diversity that can be applied to monitoring a patient's response to immunotherapy, discover new targets for drug companies, or as a way to profile an individual's adaptive immune system over time.
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SOURCE MIODx
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