NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Transplant organ diagnostic startup TAI Diagnostics today announced the completion of an $8.2 million Series A financing round and the appointment of Frank Langley as its CEO.
Investors in the financing included Venture Investors and private investors. Proceeds will go toward the ongoing development of the Milwaukee-based company's transplant monitoring technology, clinical studies, and the creation of a reference laboratory to offer its post-transplant monitoring assays, TAI Dx said.
The firm was founded this year to develop and commercialize cell-free DNA technology licensed from the Medical College of Wisconsin. Founders of the firm include Michael Mitchell, a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, and Aoy Tomita-Mitchell, a research scientist at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Both are co-founders of Roche's Ariosa Diagnostics.
The company will initially focus its technology on monitoring heart transplant patients, though it plans to develop technology aimed at other transplanted organs.
Also, Frank Langley has joined TAI Dx as CEO. He brings more than 30 years of experience in life science management, including a decade in transplant diagnostics as president and CEO of Pel-Freez Clinical Systems, now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific; and as vice president and general manager of transplant diagnostics at Immucor.