Life sciences firm HealthTell has raised $4m from private backers to bring to market a test kit for lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer.
The US-based firm, founded in 2010, is commercialising diagnostics technology originally developed at Arizona State University’s (ASU) Biodesign Institute. It is currently housed at the Innovations Incubator at Chandler, Arizona, where it employs 20 staff.
As opposed to scanning directly for a pathogen, the company’s diagnostics software scans for a unique ‘immunosignature’ given off by a body under the effects of a certain disease (or ‘tell’ – slang for an inadvertent signal that a player is bluffing in poker). This allows the company to identify diseases in their early stages without invasive scans.
Bill Colston, co-founder and chief executive of HealthTell, said: “Last year, more than 270,000 Americans died from lung, breast, prostate and colorectal cancers – the top four cancers worldwide. This $4 million in new funding will help HealthTell demonstrate the ability of its test to provide reproducible detection of these tumours at an early stage, when treatment outcomes are significantly improved.”
The technology was licensed through ASU’s tech transfer unit Arizona Technology Enterprises.
