PlaqueTec has secured $8million in equity financing to advance its vision of opening a new frontier of precision medicine for millions of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).
The funding was led by Lord Moynihan of Chelsea alongside The Future Fund, with support from existing investors.
It will support PlaqueTec’s ongoing BIOPATTERN trial, to which 300 patients are being recruited for endotyping, meaning their disease will be classified into distinct subtypes based on molecular mechanisms. The trial will improve understanding of CAD pathobiology and how it varies between individuals.
The funding and trial will also help Babraham Research Campus-based PlaqueTec to build BIOCARTA, its novel biomarker discovery tool.
Martin Stapleton, chairman of PlaqueTec, said: “CAD is a leading cause of death worldwide and represents an area with significant unmet medical need. The continued support from our existing investors and additional funding from the Future Fund reinforces the potential of our technology and BIOCARTA database, and brings us closer to achieving our vision of opening a new frontier of precision medicine for millions of patients with CAD worldwide.”
BIOCARTA is a bioinformatics platform that interrogates data and groups patients with CAD into endotypes with defined signatures of the disease.
It correlates in vivo biomarkers localising at the disease site with plaque imaging, genomic analysis, blood biochemistry and clinical and demographic phenotypes to enhance understanding of disease.
BIOCARTA will enable biomarkers to be identified so that CAD patients - who are largely treated as one uniform group a the moment - can be given more targeted therapeutic interventions.
Th BIOPATTERN trial that is generating data for BIOCARTA used PlaqueTec’s proprietary blood sampling device, the Liquid Biopsy System, to collect samples containing biomolecules localising at or being released by coronary plaque.
PlaqueTec has already completed proof-of-concept and first in-human trials of its Liquid Biopsy System.
The company is a finalist in the 2024 Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards, being held on 16 May at Hinxton Hall Conference Centre.
