Medley Genomics, a life sciences startup out of Brown University, has received $250,000 in seed funding from the Slater Technology Fund to build partnerships and demonstrate its concept with collaborators.
Richard G. Horan, senior managing director of the Slater Technology Fund, said on Wednesday that the fund is excited to support Medley Genomics, calling it a “promising new startup.”
“Medley’s founders have deep, first-hand understanding of leading genomic analysis technologies and detailed knowledge of those in development, along with leading-edge software for evaluating and quantitating genomic heterogeneity. They are targeting a problem that has become the latest front in the war on cancer, an area where truly meaningful advances are being introduced into clinical practice,” Horan said in a statement.
According to a news release from Slater, Medley Genomics is the first personalized medicine company founded to use genomic analysis methods to assess the complex genomic heterogeneity found in biological samples.
The company aims to develop a “new paradigm” in personalized oncology by defining genomic heterogeneity in tumors of patients to assist clinical decision-making, resulting in better patient outcomes, the release said.
It said treatment decisions now often are directed by the molecular profile of a patient’s tumor, a profile derived from the most frequent molecular alterations identified in the tumor.
However, a treatment challenge lies in the underlying heterogeneity of the tumor cells, which are each driven by unique molecular signatures.
“While treatment may have previously held the cancer at bay, rarer cell subpopulations often emerge from the tumor and proliferate, leading to treatment resistance and tumor...Read More