Spun out of UC Berkeley research, Magnetic Insight is commercialising an in vivo molecular imaging technology that operates by applying magnetic fields to iron oxide tracers.
Magnetic Insight, a US-based research imaging technology developer founded on University of California, Berkeley research, secured an $18m series A round today from investors led by venture capital firm 5AM Ventures.
Founded in 2014, Magnetic Insight has devised a technology that provides molecular imaging of deep tissues in vivo for preclinical research purposes.
The platform exploits a technique called magnetic particle imaging (MPI) to illuminate important events and pathologies in the host organism by using magnetic fields to identify the location of iron oxide nanoparticle tracers.
As the tracers are not normally found in the body, Magnetic Insight claims MPI can produce images with exceptional contrast and sensitivity.
The series A capital will allow Magnetic to build out its commercial and operational teams as it ramps up production capacity and targets additional applications for its technology.
David Allison, partner at 5AM Ventures, will join the board of directors together with Joe Victor, another partner at 5AM Ventures who is also president and chief executive at research instrument developer Rarecyte.
Magnetic Insight’s chief technology officer is Patrick Goodwill, who previously headed research at UC Berkeley into magnetic particle imaging technology from 2010 until 2015.
Stanford-StartX Fund, the VC vehicle affiliated with Stanford’s StartX accelerator, backed a $3m seed round for Magnetic Insight in 2016 led by venture firm Sand Hill Angels with participation from unnamed angel investors and VC vehicles.
The press release also named CEG Ventures and SVTech Ventures as among Magnetic Insight’s investors, however it was unclear whether they formed part of the latest round.
