Magnitude Biosciences secures €1.5 million investment to scale in-vivo drug discovery platform
Magnitude Biosciences, a specialist contract research organisation (CRO) and Durham University spinout, has secured €1.5 million (£1.3 million) in funding to accelerate the commercialisation of VivoScan, its proprietary in vivo high-throughput screening (HTS) platform. Northstar Ventures led the round through the North East Spinout Inspire Fund, the North East Innovation Fund and the Northstar…
Magnitude Biosciences, a Durham University spinout and contract research organization, has secured €1.5 million (£1.3 million) in funding to advance its VivoScan platform. The investment, led by Northstar Ventures through the North East Spinout Inspire Fund, North East Innovation Fund and Northstar EIS Growth Fund, along with contributions from Maven’s regional funds and new angel investors, will also unlock a €253k (£217k) Innovate UK Investor Partnership grant.
Dr. Fozia Saleem, CEO of Magnitude Biosciences, aims to make VivoScan a platform for screening millions of compounds in whole organisms, potentially revolutionizing drug discovery speed and efficiency. The funding comes as European platforms focused on enhancing preclinical drug discovery speed and quality see continued investment, with EU-Startups reporting €21.6 million in seven recent financings.
Other recent UK-based funding rounds for comparable technologies include €3 million for Sightera Biosciences, €1.23 million for FluoSphera, €1.9 million for ALP Bio, and €1 million for Exobiosphere. Magnitude Biosciences' VivoScan platform screens compounds in living C. elegans worms using automated imaging, robotics, and AI, generating detailed whole organism data that could expedite drug candidate identification and development, particularly in areas like ageing and neurodegenerative diseases.
Written by urgent.news from EU-Startups's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
