US-based Elephas Biosciences has raised $55m in Series C financing to develop its live tumour imaging diagnostic platform.
The Series C financiers include ARCH Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, Northpond Ventures, Sands Capital, State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), Tao Invest, Venture Investors Health Fund and WARF Ventures.
Elephas is currently conducting two observational trials (CYBRID-01: NCT05478538 and CYBRID-02: NCT05520099) investigating its imaging diagnostics platform. The platform visualises immune cell activity including T-cell activation and cytotoxic mediated killing to help predict response to immunotherapies.
The trials are expected to enrol around 200 patients each and will collect tissue to train and validate Elephas’ imaging diagnostics platform. They also aim to demonstrate a correlation between patients' clinical response to immunotherapy and the response data obtained by the Elephas platform.
The use of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help in diagnosis and predict responses has increased in recent years. GlobalData forecasts the AI market will grow from approximately $93bn in 2023 to more than $908.7bn in 2030.
A 2018 study conducted by the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in the US demonstrated that genetic tests can be used to identify schizophrenia patients who are likely to respond to treatment with antipsychotic drugs. Patients with higher polygenic risk scores were less likely to respond to standard antipsychotic therapy. The data was found to be consistent in two independent cohorts, one of which was evaluated by European researchers.
Another company that has developed prediction software is January AI. The company’s AI-assisted app can be used to predict the glucose response of individuals to various food items. It provides users with information such as glucose estimates, predictions and key insights on topics such as increasing fibre consumption, calorie recommendations, intermittent fasting and lowering glucose-spiking foods.
