Spring Mountain Capital, LP Leads Investment in IsoPlexis Corporation

NEW YORK, Aug. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Spring Mountain Capital, LP, a New York-based investment management firm, announced today that its private equity group structured and led a growth equity investment in IsoPlexis Corporation. 

IsoPlexis has developed a break-through single cell immunoassay and related software that provides in-depth understanding of immune and cancer cells.  The Company's advanced cell assay can identify and characterize up to 45 secreted proteins from individual cells and their effects on the immune system – an amount of information that researchers thus far have been unable to obtain on a single cell basis using currently available methodologies and tools. 

The IsoPlexis technology has important implications in immunology, a field where drug researchers and the academic community are devoting considerable resources to learn how to activate the body's own immune systems to fight and prevent diseases.  The innovative IsoPlexis tool is currently being used by research institutions, including the leukemia department at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the rheumatology and immunobiology departments at the Yale University School of Medicine.   

IsoPlexis was founded by Dr. Rong Fan, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Yale University, who received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award in 2014 and was named a Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering in 2012.  The Company was co-founded and is led by CEO Sean Mackay.   

"Cells use proteins to talk to each other, and I wanted to know what they were talking about," said Dr. Fan. "The potential applications are very broad. We're entering the era of cellular medicine."  CEO Sean Mackay added, "By expanding the ability to detect cellular activity, we offer researchers the ability to ask questions they could not before. How do complex diseases and therapies impact patients broadly at the cellular level? We are excited to help them find the answers."

"We are quite excited by our partnership with IsoPlexis and the impact the Company's technology is expected to have on the fields of cancer immunology, infectious diseases, and autoimmune disorders," said Gregory P. Ho, President of Spring Mountain Capital. "This opportunity fits perfectly with the strategy of Spring Mountain Capital's private equity group of investing in opportunities created by break-through innovations."

Other participants in the financing round include Connecticut Innovations, YEI Innovation Fund (a part of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute), Yale University, and North Sound Ventures, among others.

ABOUT SPRING MOUNTAIN CAPITAL, LP
Founded in 2001 and located in New York, Spring Mountain Capital, LP ("SMC") is a private investment management firm that focuses on alternative asset investing and offers investors a wide range of strategies designed to produce attractive risk adjusted returns.  SMC has a dynamic and opportunistic mindset with a client-oriented focus that drives it toward providing investors with intelligent and sophisticated investment opportunities.  The private equity group at SMC makes growth equity investments in small capitalization companies.  Its "investing in the gaps" philosophy capitalizes on market dislocations, information asymmetry, illiquidity and complexity.  It seeks to invest in opportunities that benefit from break-through innovations, fundamental market changes, and paradigm shifts.

ABOUT ISOPLEXIS CORPORATION
IsoPlexis has developed a single cell multiplexing immunoassay and software suite that provides in-depth biological characterization of important immune and cancer cell subsets. The Company's tool enables discovery of novel biomarkers and accurate testing of molecules for clinical activity against these heterogeneous subsets.  The tool is able to identify and characterize up to 45 secreted proteins on a single cell basis.  IsoPlexis is based in Branford, CT.  For further information, please visit the Company's website (www.IsoPlexis.com). 

For further information: 
Raymond L.M. Wong (212-292-8334)
Jamie Weston (212-292-7056)
www.springmountaincapital.com 

SOURCE Spring Mountain Capital, LP