Lunaphore successfully closes Series A financing round of CHF 2 million

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29.04.2015

Lunaphore Technologies SA, a young Swiss medtech company developing a disruptive technology for tissue diagnostics, announced today the closing of a Series A financing round of CHF 2 million. The round was led by Redalpine Venture Partners in Zurich with the participation of private investors from Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Proceeds will be used to develop Lunaphore’s first tissue diagnostics platform.

Lunaphore, a spin-off from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), was founded in April 2014. Lunaphore has developed an innovative tissue diagnostic platform, primarily for analysis and classification of tumors. The platform is based on a microfluidic chip technology that allows fine-tuning of such diagnostic assays, and increases their speed and accuracy. To bring the products closer to the market, the company raised CHF 2 million from Redalpine Venture Partners and private investors from Switzerland and the UK.

From the very beginning, our philosophy was to build a great team and a great product, and this very first investment is a significant validation of both. Besides, we are excited to have a lead investor on board with such an impressive track record like Redalpine.” says Dr. Ata Tuna Ciftlik, the founder and CEO of Lunaphore.

In addition, Lunaphore announces the assignment of Dr. Michael Sidler to the Board of Directors. “We are excited about the unprecedented speed and flexibility of the platform and the passion and dedication of the founders”, says Sidler. “Solutions like Lunaphore’s are required in a world where medicine is becoming more personalized and determined by panels of biomarkers”. Michael is a co-founder and partner at Redalpine and contributes his longstanding experience in as an entrepreneurial life science investor, with his background in Biology and Diagnostics.

Lunaphore’s core technology, which has been developed at EPFL during the last 6 years, is called Microfluidic Tissue Processor (MTP). The MTP increases the speed and accuracy of basic processes required to implement diagnostic assays on tissue samples like solid tumors. The first application is going to be on searching signatures of certain proteins in tumor tissues, a procedure known as immunohistochemical analysis. A set of clinical studies has already been conducted with 76 breast cancer patients, and the results showed that Lunaphore’s platform can perform such analysis within 5 minutes when compared to 2 to 8 hours for current standards. Furthermore, the obtained diagnostic results are 90% more accurate than methods used in a state-of-the art pathology laboratory. Lunaphore has already a few prototypes are under validation in collaboration with key opinion leaders and players in the field.

The tissue diagnostics market that Lunaphore is aiming at is worth a few billions and is growing fast. Market researches show that the increasing age in population and the high number of new biomarkers that are being discovered will generate an even larger market with a higher growth rate. “This puts us in a great position as a technology provider” estimates Ciftlik. By combining accuracy, speed and automation, Lunaphore wants to be the core technology provider on the international scene.

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