A startup that aims to rapidly profile the antibiotic resistance of infectious diseases using genomic sequencing, gathering that information in hours instead of days, raised $8.6 million in a series A round.
Since being founded in 2016, the Boston-based Day Zero Diagnostics has been developing Blood2Bac, a process for enriching bacterial DNA from clinical samples. It has also been building out its MicrohmDB, a large database of whole-genome sequences from pathogens and their resistances to antibiotic drugs.
That dataset has been used to train the company’s machine-learning algorithm, Keynome, for predicting resistance profiles from genomic sequences and identify different bacterial species.
Day Zero’s high-throughput approach allows for the simultaneous testing of a wide range of bacterial species and resistance markers, as well as with the ability to identify new markers as they emerge, the company said. It hopes the diagnostic will help reduce the length of hospital stays and cut back on the use of ineffective antibiotics.
"This funding allows us to continue our diagnostic system development effort and to expand our R&D program to additional use cases in infectious disease where speed and precision matter," said Jong Lee, Day Zero CEO and co-founder. The financing round was led by Triventures, with additional backing from Sands Capital Ventures and Golden Seeds.
With the proceeds, Day Zero also plans to launch a suite of sequencing-based diagnostic services for clinicians to track and address infection situations and transmission events.