Biotech & Health

University spin-out Afynia secures $5M seed to commercialize its microRNA panel test for endometriosis

Canadian biotech startup Afynia Laboratories, a spin-out from McMaster University in Ontario, has picked up $5 million in seed funding to commercialize a blood test for endometriosis — a medical condition that can afflict people with a uterus, causing problems like chronic pelvic pain and fertility issues. Endometriosis affects nearly 200 million people worldwide. Getting

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Holmes and Balwani’s appeal falls flat as court upholds fraud convictions

Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani’s appeals to overturn their fraud convictions and reduce their prison sentences were denied Monday by the Northern District Court of California, which also refused to soften their $452 million joint restitution order. Holmes, the founder of Theranos, and Balwani, its former COO, were convicted in separate trials in 2022

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How automotive exec Crystal Brown founded CircNova, an AI drug discovery biotech

Tiny Michigan biotech startup CircNova has raised a $3.3 million seed round for its technology that uses AI to target so-called “circular RNA.” The development holds promise as a new method to quickly develop therapies for conditions that currently have no drug treatments. The new funding is also a victory lap for co-founder and CEO

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Spore.Bio raises $23M to apply machine learning to microbiology testing

Recalls in the food and beverage industry due to contamination incidents can have catastrophic effects. Not only do companies have to pay fines and damages, but the impacts on the brand’s reputation can be long-lasting. That’s why Spore.Bio, a Paris-based deeptech startup, is trying to reinvent microbiology testing to avoid the next PR crisis in

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NIH funding uncertainty spurs new biotech venture fund

Earlier this month, the Trump administration directed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to impose limits on specific types of funding it provides to research institutions. Although a federal judge has temporarily blocked the policy change, government grants to early-stage biotech startups could still face delays or be eliminated entirely, said Chris Gibson, co-founder and

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US pharma giant Merck backs healthcare marketplace HD in Southeast Asia

Big Tech and pharmaceutical companies are accelerating the implementation of artificial intelligence in the healthcare industry. Just last month, AWS and General Catalyst announced their partnership to speed up the development and deployment of healthcare AI tools. GE Healthcare teamed up with AWS to build generative AI for medical use in 2024.   Now, a

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Founded by DeepMind alumnus, Latent Labs launches with $50M to make biology programmable

A new startup founded by a former Google DeepMind scientist is exiting stealth with $50 million in funding. Latent Labs is building AI foundation models to “make biology programmable,” and it plans to partner with biotech and pharmaceutical companies to generate and optimize proteins. It’s impossible to understand what DeepMind and its ilk are doing

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Elizabeth Holmes says from prison she’s ‘committed’ to ‘making healthcare solutions available to everyone’

People magazine has landed the first interview with Elizabeth Holmes since she reported to prison in 2023, and the convicted Theranos founder says she is still working on “research and inventions” in the healthcare space. “I remain completely committed to my dream of making affordable healthcare solutions available to everyone,” she told the magazine. Holmes,

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Six months after raising $29M, Candid Health nabs another $52.5M to ease medical billing

With over 1,000 insurance companies in the U.S., figuring out how to get paid by each company is a complex challenge for doctors and hospitals. Each insurance may require slightly different information on medical claims, even for the same procedure. Incorrectly filed claims can lead to denied coverage, requiring manual resubmission and delayed payments. According

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