Moleculent emerged from stealth on Tuesday with $26 million to develop next-generation lab equipment that can look at how cells interact with each other in exquisite detail, joining a hot and litigious sector of life science toolmakers.
ARCH Venture Partners led the Series A, followed by EIR Ventures, according to a news release.
The Stockholm-based company was founded by Olle Ericsson, who previously co-founded two other companies: Halo Genomics, which was acquired by Agilent Technologies in 2011, and Vanadis Diagnostics, a prenatal screening company. He also served as an advisor to lab tool company 10x Genomics for four years until 2017.
To determine how cells speak to each other, Moleculent is developing a functional proteomics tool. With it, researchers can analyze proteins like receptors and ligands, which are what cells use to interact with one another.
“The next frontier to understand these biological processes and tissues is to decode cell-cell communication networks in human tissues,” Ericsson said.
He also said that he expects Moleculent’s first collaborations to be in immuno-oncology, noting that checkpoint inhibitors have transformed the treatment of cancer, but physicians and scientists are still trying to figure out why some patients respond to treatment and others don’t.
Patrick Weiss“How does a tissue actually react to a certain therapeutic agent? Is it working or not?” said Patrick Weiss, a venture partner at ARCH and chair of Moleculent’s board.
The company plans to use its Series A to complete product development, start collaborating with scientists, and eventually commercialize the platform.
Florian Baumgartner, former CEO of Spatial Transcriptomics, is Moleculent’s head of product. In 2018, 10x Genomics acquired Spatial Transcriptomics and subsequently launched the spatial assay Visium.
10x Genomics has been involved in patent litigation with several competitors, in particular NanoString Technologies. It has also sued smaller companies including Vizgen, which is part of ARCH’s portfolio. In February, NanoString filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by Bruker in April.