Epic Sciences Raises $13M, Advances Ultra-Sensitive Cell Diagnostics

[Corrected 11/14/12, 3:45 pm. See below.] Epic Sciences, a San Diego startup developing diagnostics to identify and analyze tumor cells and other rare cells from a blood sample, has raised $13 million in a Series B round of financing. Investors include Domain Associates, Roche Venture Fund, and Pfizer Venture Investments, and undisclosed individual investors, according to a statement from the company today.

As I explained in February, Epic was founded in 2008 with technology developed in the lab of Peter Kuhn, a cell biologist at The Scripps Research Institute (and San Diego Xconomist). He has described the approach, which employs high-definition imaging and high-performance computing to help analyze nucleated cells treated with fluorescing antibodies, as a “blood fluid biopsy.” The company says its approach can identify genomic biomarkers of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), such as the Her2 protein in breast cancer, providing the kind of specific information needed to determine which cancer drugs would be most effective.

David Nelson

“What we’re trying to provide is a real time biopsy of the disease that can be used to direct the right drug to the right patient at the right time,” says Epic CEO David Nelson, who spoke with me by phone this morning from Boston, where he’s attending the World Circulating Tumor Cells Summit. The power of the diagnostics lies in the ability to analyze CTCs over time, providing real-time information about the status of the disease and how well a prescribed course of treatment is working.

The technology represents a revolution in oncology, Nelson says, with the potential to

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.