Shoreline Biome profiles $1.1m

Shoreline Biome, a US-based microbiome profiling technology developer based at University of Connecticut’s Technology Incubation Program, has raised $1.1m in funding from investors including state-owned VC firm Connecticut Innovations.

A range of unnamed, private investors also contributed to the funding round.

Founded in 2015, Shoreline Biome develops kits, protocols and software that evaluate microorganisms in the human microbiome, a network of microbial cells such as bacteria, fungi and viruses.

High-resolution microbiome profiling has been linked to improving the diagnostic outlook for a range of diseases. Shoreline’s software quickly gauges the nature of sampled microorganisms, which can be exported into genetic sequencing platforms for further analysis.

Shoreline Biome is the brainchild of Mark Driscoll and Tom Jarvie, two former employees at the now-defunct 454 Life Sciences unit of pharmaceutical developer Roche. Driscoll and Jarvie now act, respectively, as chief scientific officer and chief executive of Shoreline.

The technology is being developed in partnership with George Weinstock, director of microbial genomics at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, which is situated at University of Connecticut Health Center.

David Hafler, chair of the neurology department at Yale School of Medicine and neurologist-in-chief at Yale New Haven Hospital, also assisted with Shoreline’s research.

Shoreline Biome received an undisclosed sum of capital in April 2017 from UConn Innovation Fund, a $1.5m vehicle backed by the university that invests up to $100,000 in companies, Connecticut Innovations and financial services firm Webster Bank.

Connecticut Innovations also provided Shoreline with $150,000 in pre-seed funding and a further $500,000 equity investment from its Connecticut Bioscience Innovation Fund, though dates for the transactions could not be ascertained.