While the industry uses the term “non-invasive diagnostic” to include drawn blood and its accompanying needles, tubes and fingersticks, Tesseract Health may look to redefine the concept even further.
Using the eyes as a window into the body’s health, the company has raised $80 million to help complete the development of its retinal scanning system that aims to diagnose a wide range of diseases.
Tesseract’s iC platform, acting like a one-way pair of binoculars, combines chemical sensors, imaging technology and artificial intelligence analyses to inspect the back of the eye—the only place in the human body where arteries, veins and nerves can be directly observed.
The company hopes to provide automated clinical diagnostics that can be operated by anyone, anywhere—spanning not just ophthalmology, but also cardiac and neurological care through a cloud-connected device.
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Tesseract was incubated at the medtech accelerator 4Catalyzer—alongside companies such as the handheld ultrasound maven Butterfly Network and the portable MRI developer Hyperfine Research—and founded by serial entrepreneur Jonathan Rothberg, who helped invent next-generation, high-speed DNA sequencing as well as the ultrasound-on-a-chip.
Its series B round was backed by Foresite Capital, Glenview Capital and Opaleye, among others. The proceeds will help it pursue FDA and international clearances and ramp up its manufacturing plans.