Owlstone Medical Secures $6.5 Million to Support Development of Breath-based Diagnostics for Infectious Disease
2024年4月25日 - 8:20PM
ビジネスワイヤ(英語)
- $5 million equity investment and initial $1.5 million grant
funding committed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for
development of breath-based diagnostic solutions to improve
outcomes in the developing world
- Funding represents the first time the foundation has taken an
equity position in a breath diagnostics company
- Funding will also support enhancement of the Breath Biopsy
platform, including the VOC Atlas
Owlstone Medical (“Owlstone”), the global leader in Breath
Biopsy® for applications in early disease detection and precision
medicine, today announced it has secured funding from the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation (“the Gates Foundation” or “the
foundation”). The funding is comprised of a $5 million equity
investment to advance Owlstone’s Breath Biopsy platform and $1.5
million in grant funding to develop breath-based diagnostics and
identify breath biomarkers for tuberculosis (TB) and HIV.
Owlstone, with support from the foundation, is interested in
developing new cost-effective detection technologies for volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) that could serve as markers of diseases
that disproportionately affect the developing world. With the new
funding, Owlstone seeks to understand whether this approach is
suitable for TB and HIV detection and to explore a path by which
breath-based testing could be deployed for rapid screening and
earlier diagnosis.
Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO at Owlstone Medical,
said: “Early diagnosis is a critical determinant of health
outcomes. By enabling swift and non-invasive detection of disease,
breath analysis has the potential to save lives and dramatically
reduce the burden of illness in resource-constrained settings. This
investment by the Gates Foundation is testament to how Owlstone is
uniquely positioned to transform infectious disease diagnosis
through our Breath Biopsy platform. The funds will accelerate both
the discovery and validation of VOC biomarkers, and the development
of a fieldable, low cost, simple to use device.”
The $5 million equity investment will support advancements of
the Breath Biopsy platform, including expansion of the Breath
Biopsy VOC Atlas1 database and for development of a remote-use
real-time breath analyzer. This component of the funding will be
the first time that the foundation has taken an equity position in
a breath diagnostics company.
The $1.5 million in grant funding to support the identification
of breath biomarkers will be used across two projects:
- TB: In partnership with the University of Cape Town, South
Africa, Owlstone aims to identify a panel of on-breath candidate
VOC biomarkers that differentiate TB subjects from healthy controls
and to develop breath diagnostic approaches based on exploiting the
metabolic features of TB using in vitro approaches.
- HIV: Working with investigators from Imperial College, UK, and
Oxford University, UK, Owlstone will analyze VOCs from blood
samples from subjects with HIV and will work to identify a panel of
on-breath candidate VOC biomarkers that correlate with HIV viral
load.
In both areas, the data collected will also be used to further
populate Owlstone’s Breath Biopsy VOC Atlas.
Activities complementary to this project are underway with the
US Department of Defense2 (the ‘EXHALE’ project) where Owlstone is
developing a handheld device capable of non-invasive detection of
pre-symptomatic respiratory infectious disease, providing further
support for Owlstone’s ability to advance the foundation’s
mission.
References:
-
https://www.owlstonemedical.com/science-technology/breath-biopsy-voc-atlas/
-
https://www.owlstonemedical.com/about/news/2023/may/17/OML-wins-DIU-contract/
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240425029302/en/
Dr Ben Rutter Zyme Communications
ben.rutter@zymecommications.com +44 (0) 7920-770935