NEW YORK ─ Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinout Glympse Bio said on Wednesday that it has closed an oversubscribed $46.7 million Series B financing round.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm said it anticipates using the proceeds to support the continued development of its biosensor platform for the diagnosis of cancers, infectious diseases, and fibrotic diseases such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
Venture capital fund Section 32 led the Series B financing round, which included new investors Temasek, DNS Capital, New Leaf Venture Partners, Waterman Ventures, and Catalio Capital Management. Current investors also participated in the financing, including LS Polaris Innovation Fund, Arch Venture Partners, CRV, GreatPoint Ventures, Gilead Sciences, and others.
Glympse said that its platform will be used to determine clinical trial participants’ stage of disease at initial screening and to detect patients' response to treatment in NASH studies that may enable a premarket approval. Its biosensors avoid the difficulties associated with needle-liver biopsy by providing safe, repeatable, noninvasive measurements of disease activity directly at the liver, Glympse said, adding that the devices have the potential to predict the stage of NASH in a patient before histopathology changes become visible and enable serial monitoring of treatment progress.
In addition to the NASH pivotal studies, the Series B funding will support further development of the company’s oncology program and support initiating the development of an infectious disease program, the firm said.
"Using a novel noninvasive approach, we can measure real-time biological signals that translate into clinically actionable results," Wendy Winckler, the company's chief scientific officer, said in a statement.
The Series B financing enables it to continue the development of its current programs and expand the application of its platform into new therapeutic indications, Winckler said. In oncology, the biosensors are being designed to track tumor progression at the site of disease and measure the response to treatment across a broad range of immunotherapies, targeted therapies, and other standards of care, she added.
In connection with the Series B financing, Steven Kafka, managing partner at Section 32, and George Zachary, general partner at CRV, will join the Glympse board of directors. Cayce Denton, director at Temasek, and Andrew Perlman, managing partner at GreatPoint Ventures, will join the board as observers.
Glympse said it also strengthened its clinical advisory board with the addition of Padmanee Sharma, professor of genitourinary medical oncology and immunology at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Scott Joseph Antonia, professor of medicine at Duke Cancer Center.