NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Cell detection and liquid biopsy firm RareCyte said today that it has raised $30 million in a private financing round, which it plans to use to advance commercial sales efforts and build new companion diagnostic partnerships.
The investment was led by 5AM Ventures with additional participation from existing investors including Telegraph Hill Partners.
In conjunction with the funding, Joe Victor, a venture partner at 5AM and former CEO of DVS Sciences and Applied Precision, will become RareCyte's president and CEO, the firm said. Its current CEO Ron Seubert will transition to chief technology officer. The firm said Brian Daniels — also a Venture Partner at 5AM Ventures — will join RareCyte's board.
RareCyte offers an integrated rare cell separation, identification, and retrieval platform, which includes the AccuCyte blood separation system for collection of the nucleated cell fraction of a blood draw — including circulating tumor cells, and high-resolution microscopic scanning with the CyteFinder instrument.
CyteFinder also allows users to analyze captured rare cells using immunofluorescent staining in up to six biomarker channels and to retrieve single cells of interest for downstream analysis and clinical research.
In addition to using the new funds for commercial sales and to support CDx growth, the company said it also hopes to expand its regulatory infrastructure and research and development efforts.