By Diagnostics World Staff
January 7, 2015 | IQuity Labs, a diagnostics company spun out from research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, today announced that it has raised $2 million in seed funding to support the rollout of its first test in the second quarter of this year. The company, based in Nashville, Tenn., plans to assist in the diagnosis of autoimmune disorders by measuring gene expression in simple blood draws, beginning with a test for markers of multiple sclerosis.
“This successful round of seed funding will allow us to make our leading-edge test widely available to providers,” Chase Spurlock, CEO of IQuity and an immunologist at Vanderbilt, tells Diagnostics World. “That gives them a new tool to diagnose faster and treat their patients sooner.”
IQuity’s tests use RT-PCR to measure the levels of RNA biomarkers in peripheral whole blood, looking for gene expression patterns indicative of autoimmune disease. Studies at Vanderbilt have suggested this approach, coupled with IQuity’s proprietary analysis tools, can diagnose multiple sclerosis with greater than 95% sensitivity and specificity. Spurlock says that the test can be performed in days, while current methods of diagnosing multiple sclerosis, based on clinical criteria, may take years. The test is also accurate, he says, from the earliest onset of symptoms.
“We really don’t know a lot about how autoimmune diseases come about, and often the symptoms of autoimmune diseases can mimic one another, so it creates a lot of diagnostic confusion,” Spurlock says. “It’s a huge unmet health need.”
IQuity will launch its diagnostic as a laboratory developed test, performed in partner labs and ordered by physicians. The company does not immediately plan to seek FDA clearance for wider distribution.
Additional tests in development will cover gastrointestinal and rheumatological disorders.