J&J, others join $6.5M funding round for U.K. liquid biopsy company

The U.K.'s Inivata raised more than $6.5 million in new financing to help advance its use of circulating tumor DNA to improve cancer testing and treatment. Its approach essentially involves something known as a liquid biopsy, with a goal of detecting and analyzing genomic material from a cancer patient's cell-free circulating tumor DNA--something that can be collected through a basic blood sample. Some big players contributed to the funding round: Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. ($JNJ), Cambridge Innovation Capital and Imperial Innovations. They're specifically interested in Inivata's TAm-Seq technology platform, which is licensed from Cancer Research Technology and the University of Cambridge. Inivata's game plan involves working with industry and academia to develop new clinical applications for analysis of circulating tumor DNA, with an eye on improving patient outcomes and making clinical trial design more effective. Release