RenalytixAI, which makes artificial intelligence-based clinical diagnostics for kidney disease, has raised $29 million to develop and commercialize two tests. The first spots kidney disease early, while the second is designed for managing rejection in kidney transplant patients.
The company plans to launch its first product, dubbed KidneyIntelX, in 2019. The clinical laboratory-based test is intended to help physicians make decisions about patients with progressive kidney disease by “improving identification, prediction, and risk stratification” of these patients, the company said in a statement.
RenalytixAI’s products are based on a technology platform that uses machine learning algorithms to analyze various types of health data. These data come from “distinct sources of health data, including systems containing extensive electronic health records, predictive blood-based biomarkers and other genomic information.” From this collection of data, the company aims to build new models to predict kidney disease progression and how a given patient might respond to a treatment.
"Kidney disease is a major challenge for healthcare systems around the globe," said Barbara Murphy, M.D., who sits on RenalytixAI’s board of directors and chairs its scientific advisory board. She is a professor, dean of clinical integration and population health and chair of the department of medicine at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine.
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"We're responding to this critical unmet need by developing two products that will identify patients at risk for kidney disease progression and dialysis, and categorize the type of risk that will be experienced by kidney transplant patients,” she said.
The financing comes a few months after RenalytixAI and Mount Sinai partnered on AI solutions to improve the management and care of patients with kidney disease. That partnership pairs RenalytixAI’s AI capabilities with Mount Sinai’s data assets, which include 3 million patient health records and 43,000 biobank participants. Its goal is to use Mount Sinai’s patient data to train AI to spot when someone is at risk of developing kidney disease or requiring unplanned “crash” dialysis. As part of the deal, Mount Sinai became a shareholder in Renalytix, holding a 19% stake.