NEW YORK – Proteomics firm Somalogic said on Wednesday that it has closed a $121 million Series A funding round that it plans to use to expand and further commercialize its SomaScan platform and SomaSignal proteomic tests.
The round was led by life science investment firm Casdin Capital with additional participants including Farallon Capital Management and Foresite Capital, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Blue Water Life Science Advisors, Madryn Asset Management, Fiscus Ventures and Reimagined Ventures, Monashee Investment Management, Mossrock Capital, Soleus Capital and others.
Casdin Capital Founder Eli Casdin will be joining Somalogic's board of directors.
"The proteomics era is here," Casdin said in a statement. "We’ve invested in support of the value created by genomic technologies from the beginning. This impact has been profound across and beyond healthcare, but what has remained is the fundamental appreciation that the proteome holds as much or greater promise. These disruptive waves begin with powerful enabling technologies, and we’re seeing the emergence of these tools to power a proteomics revolution."
"With this funding, we will build on our substantial technological lead in this space, continue to develop these important markets and in the process, achieve our goals of improving human health and healthcare delivery," Somalogic CEO Roy Smythe said in a statement.
Somalogic's SomaScan platform uses the company's aptamer-based affinity reagents called Somamers to measure proteins in patient samples, typically blood. The platform currently measures 5,000 proteins per sample, and SomaLogic believes that measuring this large number of proteins across large numbers of samples will provide it with the data it needs to identify correlations between protein measurements and patient health that it can package as tests.
The company said that it expects to close on additional funding in the next 90 days. It has raised more than $485 million since its founding.