NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – SerImmune, a Santa Barbara, California-based immune mapping startup, said today that it has raised $8 million in a financing round led by Illumina Ventures. Merck also participated through a subsidiary, as well as other undisclosed investors.
SerImmune uses next-generation sequencing to map circulating antibodies to their antigens. It has constructed a database of disease- and health-associated antigen epitopes. The company said that it would use the investment to expand its immune mapping platform and antibody repertoire database, and to build partnerships.
"By uncovering the many diverse antigenic targets of human antibody repertoires, we can develop highly multiplexed serological diagnostics and empower the identification of therapeutic and vaccine candidates," SerImmune CEO Patrick Daugherty said in a statement. "Our growing human antibody repertoire database provides a new capability to map antigens to a range of diseases and clinical phenotypes."
Illumina Ventures Founding Partner Nick Naclerio added that the company believes SerImmune's platform "will provide new insights into the antigens and environmental factors involved in human disease, enabling more sensitive and precise diagnostic tests, new vaccines, and more targeted biopharmaceuticals."