NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Proteomics-based diagnostics firm Ascendant Dx today said that it closed on a $2 million funding round, which will support clinical trials for and commercialization of its tears-based breast cancer detection test.
Investors included unnamed strategic and private investors, as well as the Arkansas Economic Development Authority and Arkansas Science and Technology Administration. The funding will go toward efforts to bring to market Ascendant Dx's MelodyDx, a mass spectrometry-based panel of biomarkers that detects proteins in human tears in order to differentiate a malignant breast mass from benign tissue.
According to the Fayetteville, Ark.-based firm's website, MelodyDx is being developed to augment mammography and is designed for use in laboratories, clinics, hospitals, home care, and "eventually for patient self-testing."
"The goal of our screening tool is to improve breast cancer detection at earlier stages," Ascendant Dx CEO Omid Moghadam said in a statement. "Closing this round will help us bring this and other innovative new diagnostic tests to market, starting with our breast screening product."
Ascendant Dx also said that Brigitte Piniewski, the CMO of PeaceHealth Laboratories, has been appointed to the company's board. PeaceHealth CEO Ran Whitehead was appointed as a board observer.