LineaGen Inc. Launches With Close of $5.8 Million Series A Funding Round
SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 19 -- LineaGen Inc. (http://www.LineaGen.com), a biomarker discovery company created to discover and commercialize significant molecular diagnostic innovations in a variety of key healthcare areas, today announced the company's launch with the close of a $5.8-million funding round led by vSpring Capital and Sanderling Biomedical Ventures. Mesa Verde Venture Partners was the third strategic investment partner in the Series A round.
The capital raised will be used to establish a world-class molecular diagnostic commercialization entity for exploration into the nature, causes and treatment of some of the world's most pressing medical and healthcare challenges.
"The launch of LineaGen is an enormous win for Utah and its life science community," said Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. "This is a classic example of how leaders in Utah's life science industry, investment and higher education research communities are working together to provide global leadership in personalized and predictive medicine, one of the core areas of focus in our Clusters economic development initiative."
LineaGen's initial focus includes groundbreaking diagnostic tools for the advancement of personalized healthcare by furthering genetic understanding, diagnosis and targeted treatment of significant disorders and diseases, including:
"We are honored and humbled to receive this investment of highly intelligent capital to launch LineaGen Inc.," said Dr. Michael S. Paul, president and CEO of LineaGen Inc. "We are confident that this visionary team of highly experienced investors will be instrumental in guiding LineaGen's path to global leadership in the molecular diagnostics market."
LineaGen has named Dr. Dinesh Patel of vSpring, Fred Middleton of Sanderling and Dan Wood of Mesa Verde to the company's board of directors. The board also includes co-founder and chair Dr. Stephen Prescott, president of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and a member of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research; Dr. Al Harris, former director of pharmaceutical licensing for Abbott; and Paul.
"We are delighted to finance LineaGen, which has great opportunity and importance, led by a world-class management team, board and strategic collaborators," said Patel, managing director of vSpring Capital. "We are certain that this company will make a significant impact in the marketplace, and improve the lives of countless patients and their families."
"It is an honor to fund this extremely promising company," said Middleton, managing director of Sanderling Ventures. "I have no doubt that LineaGen will make a great impact in the medical marketplace, and do tremendous good for patients and their families throughout the world who are confronting a host of diseases and disorders."
LineaGen also enjoys strategic partnerships with world-class researchers, including:
LineaGen will also leverage Utah's unique and proven population-based genetic resources and information, which facilitated the identification of several cancer genes -- including BRCA1 and BRCA2 (breast cancer) and the APC (colon cancer).
LineaGen's strategic partnerships with prominent scientists and researchers will draw upon and expand the university's seminal and continuing contributions to human genetic understanding of diseases and disorders. The University of Utah has discovered more disease-related genes than any other university in the world, and the multi-generational Utah Population Database is the world's most comprehensive population and medical database -- comprised of more than ten million records relating to more than six million individuals in Utah, Idaho, and surrounding regions.
"I believe LineaGen is better positioned than any other company in the world to utilize the wealth of genetic information contained in the Utah Population Database and related resources, in order to provide meaningful and useful insight into the cause and nature of human diseases that will in turn lead to the advancement of personalized healthcare," said Prescott. "LineaGen is uniquely qualified to understand the complex interplay of factors involved in many diseases, and to create an effective discovery-to-commercialization platform for the identification of novel molecular factors that will lead to more effective diagnostics and targeted treatments for these diseases."
For more information about LineaGen Inc., its areas of focus and its executives, board members and scientific advisors, visit http://www.LineaGen.com.
About LineaGen Inc.
LineaGen, Inc. (http://www.LineaGen.com) is a content-based biomarker discovery company focused on the commercialization of novel, patentable diagnostic tests that enable effective personalized medicine and healthcare. One of LineaGen's core competitive advantages is its access to an unmatched biomarker discovery research platform that has been used to help the University of Utah identify more disease-related genes than any other institution in the world. LineaGen's goal is to develop a diversified portfolio of novel biomarkers for the development of new diagnostic tests, and to strategically license its intellectual property to commercial partners for the development of new drug treatments. LineaGen current discovery programs focus on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), autism, multiple sclerosis and osteoporosis.