What You Ought to Know:
– Haystack Oncology (“Haystack”), an oncology firm that applies the following era of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) detection expertise raises $56M in Sequence A financing led by Catalio Capital Administration (“Catalio”), which co-founded Haystack by way of its non-public fairness and structured fairness funding automobiles. Further buyers embody Bruker, Actual Ventures, the enterprise arm of Actual Sciences and Alexandria Enterprise Investments.
– The funding shall be used for the continued growth and deliberate 2023 commercialization of its best-in-class customized most cancers diagnostic check that may detect as few as one mutant molecule in 1,000,000 DNA molecules, positioning it as essentially the most delicate ctDNA-based MRD check to be used in strong tumors.
Transformative Precision Oncology
Haystack was co-founded in 2021 by Drs. Bert Vogelstein, Ken Kinzler and Nick Papadopoulos, and Mr. Joshua Cohen of Johns Hopkins College, alongside CEO Dan Edelstein and CTO Dr. Frank Holtrup. Drs. Vogelstein, Kinzler and Papadopoulos head the Ludwig Heart on the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Most cancers Heart, the place they’re creating novel strategies for early most cancers detection. Beforehand, Drs. Vogelstein and Kinzler had been scientific co-founders of Actual Sciences, and later Drs. Vogelstein, Kinzler and Papadopoulos co-founded Thrive Earlier Detection Corp., which bought to Actual Sciences in January 2021. Mr. Edelstein and Dr. Holtrup have each held C-level roles in different liquid-biopsy-based diagnostics firms, together with Inostics, a liquid biopsy testing firm additionally co-founded by Drs. Vogelstein and Kinzler.
Haystack leverages over 20 years of pioneering analysis in liquid biopsy applied sciences to detect with excessive sensitivity and specificity the presence of any traces of MRD – small numbers of residual tumor DNA molecules left within the physique following preliminary remedy. These ctDNA molecules are a marker of the presence of most cancers and point out that the illness will recur. Haystack’s testing is designed to assist inform scientific interventions by creating customized diagnostic panels to customise optimum remedy plans for every affected person, unbiased of a tumor’s origin.
Analysis/Outcomes
A model of Haystack’s expertise was utilized within the landmark DYNAMIC scientific examine of stage II colon most cancers sufferers post-surgery. Outcomes from the examine had been reported earlier this 12 months on the American Society of Scientific Oncology (ASCO) annual assembly and printed within the New England Journal of Medicine1, demonstrating that making use of Haystack’s ctDNA-guided method to the remedy of stage II colon most cancers considerably diminished using adjuvant chemotherapy with out compromising recurrence threat or survival at two years.
Enlargement Plans
The corporate plans to make use of the proceeds to increase accessibility to its groundbreaking ctDNA-based MRD testing platform, Haystack Duo™, a low-error fee, next-generation chemistry that permits ultrasensitive and customized MRD testing. Haystack’s tumor-informed liquid-biopsy-based check begins with tissue-based whole-exome sequencing to determine patient-specific tumor mutations. A personalised MRD check is then developed to detect ctDNA from residual, recurrent or resistant illness.
