US-based proteomic research technology provider Alamar Biosciences closed an $80 series B round on Wednesday that included genomic biotechnology producer Illumina’s corporate venturing arm, Illumina Ventures.
Sherpa Healthcare Partners led the round, which was filled out by Morningside Ventures, Samsara Biocapital and Qiming Venture Partners. It puts the overall funding for the company at $110m.
Alamar is developing precision systems to accurately profile proteins from microlitre-level amounts of human plasma, using genomics to facilitate the early detection and prevention of disease and create new drugs. The funding will be used to accelerate the development of its technology.
Taking advantage of the protein-rich nature of blood plasma, the company seeks to use RNA detection technology to mine it for any early markers of maladies like cancer.
Qiming Venture Partners led Alamar’s series A round, according to a company statement which also identified Illumina Ventures as an existing investor.
Yuling Luo, founder and chief executive of Alamar, said: “We are very pleased to have these top-tier investors supporting our next phase of development. They bring tremendous amount of expertise in life sciences and diagnostics, which will be extremely valuable to us as we build the company.
“Despite recent progress in the field, there is still no technology that unites two essential goals in proteomics analysis, namely the ability to go as deeply as possible to detect very low abundance proteins and the ability to profile thousands of proteins in a single sample.
“This capability will be critical for the discovery and measurement of many proteins in human plasma that are currently undetectable.”
