First Round of Funding brings $14.6 million to DVS for Novel Single-Cell Analysis Technology

DVS Sciences, Inc., a company developing high multi-parameter single-cell analyzers and reagents for biological research and clinical applications, has recently managed to raise $14.6 million in the first round of funding. The money is intended to be used in order to accelerate the commercial manufacturing scale-up of the company’s paradigm-shifting multi-parameter singe cell analysis solution.

The company is based in Ontario, Canada and in Sunnyvale, California. The firm is a spin-off from the University of Toronto. This round of funding reunited numerous investors; including 5AM Ventures, Pfizer Venture Investments, Roche Venture Fund, Mohr Davidow Ventures and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.

Andrew Schwab, the Managing Partner from 5AM Ventures declared the following: “DVS Sciences has made great strides in demonstrating the significant demand for quantitative, highly multiparametric biomarker assays performed in single cells and we are pleased to be part of this significant Series A financing. The company is well positioned for high growth and to expand the cellular analysis marketplace. We believe that the CyTOF®– MAXPAR® platform will transform the performance of cellular analysis. By enabling the measurement of many biomarkers simultaneously in single cells, researchers will be primed to better understand the cellular dynamics of disease states, stem cells and other biologically relevant systems.”

The money is going to be used in order to develop a high-throughput mass cytometer for individual cell analysis, CyTOF, and a suite of MAXPAR reagents, including stable-isotope-tagged antibodies. This new technology eliminates the inherent spectral overlap issues and enables quantitative multi-biomarker analysis for scientific research, which are likely to have quite incredible results when it comes to developing applications in clinical trials and in personalized medicine. The efficiency of this type of analysis has been demonstrated by the researchers at Stanford University, which have been led by the professor of microbiology and immunology, Garry Nolan, Ph. D. Their study has been conducted on a 34-parameter bone marrow immunological and functional assay where subtle transitions between cell states have been shown. Dr. Garry Nolan stated the following: “Using this technology, we can tell not only what kind of cell it is, but essentially what it’s thinking, what it’s been doing, and what it may soon do or become.”

Scott Tanner, the CEO and the co-founder of the company, declared: “This significant Series A financing puts us in a position to broadly commercialize our innovative instrumentation and reagents and help scientists accelerate biomedical research, delivering a quantum step towards personalized therapeutic diagnosis and prognosis, and transform drug discovery. By enabling the simultaneous detection of up to 100 disease markers in single cells, the CyTOF technology is an important tool in providing a dramatic increase in the information data rate and determining a personalized signature of disease, which will be useful in guiding diagnosis and treatment.”

DVS Sciences is a company specialized in distributing bioanalytical solutions which can be of a use for the biomarker discovery, biological research and probably for clinical applications. These research technologies have been already used in laboratories across the US, Canada and Asia. Their manufacturing points are near Toronto, in Canada, while the company’s headquarters is to be found in Sunnyvale, California.