Laboratory for Advanced Medicine (LAM), which uses artificial intelligence to identify early stages of specific cancers, is making strides to be the next big name in Orange County’s growing cluster of genomic-focused firms that provide high-tech healthcare diagnostics services.
The 5-year-old Irvine firm, which has quietly raised some $120 million since its founding—much of it this year—this month announced that Kenneth Chahine, Ph.D., JD, had joined the firm as chief executive officer, effective immediately.
Chahine in 2012 launched the AncestryDNA division of Ancestry.com that has sold about 15 million direct-to-consumer genetic genealogy products.
“My experience at Ancestry makes me confident that we can build LAM’s science and process know-how to large scale commercial products,” Chahine told the Business Journal.
The hiring is also another sign of a growing OC industry. Aliso Viejo-based Ambry Genetics, which is part of Konica Minolta, last month announced a “scientific breakthrough” with a new product that permits clinicians for the first time ever to test both RNA and DNA at the same time. Another marketspace competitor founded last year is Irvine-based Genomic Testing Cooperative, which is conducting cancer screening for leukemia and lymphomas.
Chahine’s hiring is the latest sign of potential growth for LAM, which was founded by local entrepreneur Dr. Shu Li, whose work includes stints in OC’s healthcare and technology industries.
Active Months
It’s one of several notable recent signs of progress for the Spectrum-area firm.
In September, LAM said its liver cancer detection test had been granted the breakthrough device designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The liquid biopsy blood test is designed to detect the presence of liver cancer as early as Stage I with high specificity and sensitivity.
Last month, the company appointed to its board of directors Dr. Alan List, CEO of Tampa, Fla.-based Moffitt Cancer Center, which LAM called one of the top 10 cancer centers in the world.
Along with Moffit, the company said its partners include University of California-Irvine and University of California-San Diego, as well as Johns Hopkins University.
Investment Success
LAM’s funding is on a roll. It’s raised $86 million this year, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first announced Chahine’s hiring.
That’s in addition to the $34 million the company’s raised since its 2014 founding.
Funding has come from family offices of successful entrepreneurs who devote themselves to saving lives by conquering cancer, as well as from venture funds such as South Korea’s Mirae Asset Capital, according to LAM Chief Financial Officer Richard Brand.
LAM has 90 total employees. In addition to Irvine, it also has facilities in West Lafayette, Ind., as well as Guangzhou and Beijing in China.
Jazz Semiconductor Ties
After stepping down as CEO, LAM founder Li will remain on the company’s board of directors where he currently serves as chairman.
Li’s résumé includes working with Fortune 50 and 500 companies.
His bio notes he founded four publicly traded companies, including Cellular Biomedicine Group (Nasdaq: CBMG), a company based in Shanghai and New York with a $350 million market cap. Shu in 2002 also acquired Conexant’s Newport Beach fabrication facility that was renamed Jazz Semiconductor Inc., which was sold in 2007 for $260 million in cash.
The firm is now known as TowerJazz and is based in Israel; it maintains a large OC presence with a foundry along Jamboree Road and is OC’s No. 2 chipmaker by employee count.
Li, who holds six patents and earned a doctorate in philosophy from Harvard University, also founded J&J Investments and IvyGene, which was the precursor to LAM.
“My next goal is to save lives by discovering breakthrough medical technologies and translating them to reality,” he wrote on his LinkedIn page.
“This is my way to give back to the society and to build a good karma.”
Commercialization Goals
Chahine has a JD from the University of Utah and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Michigan. His background includes working as a patent attorney and CEO at Avigen Inc., a biopharmaceutical company specializing in neurological disorders that was sold for about $37 million in 2009.
Recently at Ancestry.com, he launched AncestryHealth, a physician-order product that reports on genetic predisposition to conditions such as breast, ovarian and colon cancer.
Chahine’s prior experience will give LAM the experience needed to meet expansion demands, Li told the Business Journal.
Chahine “will drive the global commercialization of our liquid biopsy pipeline of products to detect liver, colon and breast cancer at early stages,” Li said.
The Edge
LAM has used AI on over 100,000 samples. Most genomic companies utilize cell-free DNA that is taken with a simple blood draw. LAM, which also uses this type of cell-free DNA, also implements a more definitive technique to detect cancers utilizing circulating tumor DNA—a process that analyzes fragments of DNA shed from cancer cells which are circulating in the bloodstream.
The company is currently in clinical trials in the U.S. and China with its leading product to detect liver cancer. Its pipeline includes colon and breast cancer, as well as 20 other cancers.
More than 1.7 million people in the U.S. were diagnosed with cancer last year, with about 600,000 people dying from it, according to Cancer.gov. Cancer patients have a 90% chance of survival if detected during Stage I, according to LAM’s website.
The cancer diagnostics market is expected to reach about $250 billion by 2026 with a 7% annual compounding growth rate, according to Grand View Research. It said the major players competing in this market include companies such as GE Healthcare, Abbott and Siemens Healthcare GmbH.
“I am excited to lead a mission-driven company that will bring about a global paradigm shift in early cancer detection and make a profound social impact,” Chahine said last week. “Laboratory for Advanced Medicine has positioned itself as one of the leaders in the field.” n
