Firm goals to allow earlier diagnoses of neurodegenerative ailments by precisely detecting a number of disease-linked proteins.
Diagnostics firm Sunbird Bio has secured $14 million in further financing to advance its blood testing platform for neurodegenerative ailments. The corporate’s platform goals to enhance the analysis and remedy of neurological issues by enabling earlier and extra correct detection of disease-specific proteins implicated in circumstances like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s ailments.
Based mostly in Cambridge, MA, and Singapore, Sunbird has developed a proprietary blood-based diagnostic know-how able to figuring out proteins like amyloid beta (Aβ), tau and alpha-synuclein (α-synuclein), which play crucial roles within the development of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s ailments. The corporate claims its know-how precisely detects low concentrations of those proteins, probably supporting earlier diagnoses of illness, and is designed to include further protein assays as new biomarkers are found.
Sunbird is amongst a number of firms in search of to offer much less invasive and extra accessible alternate options to conventional neurodegenerative illness diagnostics, corresponding to PET scans or cerebrospinal fluid evaluation by way of spinal faucets.
Sunbird’s APEX Aβ take a look at, an investigational blood-based diagnostic for Alzheimer’s illness, which precisely detects low ranges of amyloid beta in blood, reflecting the build-up of plaques within the mind – a trademark of Alzheimer’s illness. The platform analyzes extracellular vesicle-associated amyloid beta that crosses the blood-brain barrier, providing a scalable and cost-effective different to PET scans.
In a recent clinical study, the APEX take a look at precisely discriminated between sufferers with and with out amyloid beta accumulation, aligning with outcomes from PET scans. These findings counsel that the take a look at can measure related protein aggregates within the blood, correlating with mind pathology.
The brand new funding spherical included investments from Eli Lilly and the Singapore Financial Improvement Board’s funding arm, EDBI, together with ongoing help from earlier buyers ClavystBio, Polaris Companions and S32. The newly raised funds will facilitate continued medical improvement of Sunbird’s platform, together with opening a state-of-the-art laboratory and initiating additional medical trials by early 2025.
“This funding will allow us to speed up the medical improvement of our blood-based platform, which can provide physicians and sufferers a number of benefits as in comparison with presently obtainable exams,” mentioned John McDonough, CEO of Sunbird Bio. “With funding from two further organizations that deliver helpful strategic affect, we’re even higher positioned to positively influence the tens of millions of individuals globally who’re affected by devastating neurological ailments.”
