Irvine-based PhageTech Inc. said it closed on $2.4 million in Series A financing to complete development and U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for disease sensor technology and to commercialize a blood and urine test for bladder cancer.
Funding was co-led by Mark IV Capital Inc. in Newport Beach and Black River Investments LLC in Pebble Beach.
PhageTech worked with University of California-Irvine researchers on the sensor technology, which is intended for early detection of cancer and other diseases via inexpensive at-home or outpatient tests, and a smart phone app that speeds diagnoses.
“The entire diagnostic test is contained in a chip the size of a postage stamp without compromising accuracy,” said PhageTech Chief Executive Richard Henson.
Henson said the technology could “have enormous implications for developing countries with minimal resources, who are in need of simple, low cost, near-patient testing.”
The company said the sensor can be adapted to detection of different diseases; bladder cancer is the first such effort.
PhageTech is located at the EvoNexus technology incubator in Irvine.
