Proceeds will be used to finance the manufacture and commercialisation of systems which could render 1D gels unnecessary for protein analysis
Deltadot, a developer of enabling technologies and products for bioscience research, has successfully completed its latest private equity funding round, raising £2.3 million (US$4.1 million).
The round was fully subscribed and major participants included existing investors Imperial Innovations and Fleming Family and Partners (FF and P) as well as new investor NPI Ventures, the technology investment business of Nikko Principal Investments.
"We are very pleased with the continued confidence shown by our existing investors and delighted that a new investor of the calibre of NPI Ventures has recognised the value of our technologies" said Anthony Baxter, CEO of Deltadot.
"The funds raised will enable us to bring to market the first of a truly exciting range of products with tremendous potential and value to the pharmaceutical industry.
"Based on our proprietary label free intrinsic imaging (LFII) technology, our new Peregrine protein/nucleic acid analysis system and Merlin DNA sequencer offer unrivalled sensitivity, ultra high speed throughput and very low running costs.
"The proceeds will be used to finance the manufacture and commercialisation of the Peregrine and Merlin systems.
"When fully commercialised, Peregrine could render 1D gels unnecessary for protein analysis and, such is the potential of this exciting new technology for drug discovery, pre-launch sales of both products have already been made.
"Pharmaceutical companies are particularly attracted by the speed and lower running costs for candidate drug compound analysis - which is currently among the most costly and time-consuming phases of drug development".
Deltadot's novel biomolecule detection technique, LFII, is derived from recent innovations in high-energy physics research and their application in modern biochemical analysis.
Unlike conventional techniques, the technology does not require target molecules to be labelled and therefore enables superior data quantification, while reducing throughput times, operating costs, and health and safety issues.
Further financing is planned to increasing production capacity, develop an international sales and marketing function and allow development of further products, including a protein folding/unfolding chip and a virtual-2D chip to replace 2D gels.
Deltadot says it is creating new biotools that will significantly enhance productivity in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research.
The company's first product is a high performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) system that uses its proprietary label free intrinsic imaging (LFII) to accurately analyse candidate drug compounds, either nucleic acid or proteins, with enhanced speed, resolution and improved running costs.
Deltadot says its technology has major competitive advantages over competing capillary electrophoresis instruments that offer lower sensitivity, resolution, quantification and power.
The company was founded as a spin-out from Imperial College, University of London where it is based and derives its original intellectual property and scientific expertise from Imperial College.
At the forefront of biotechnology and bioinformatics, Deltadot is working at the interface of innovatory materials, computation, microstructures and pattern recognition.
The combination of nuclear physics detection technology algorithms and analytical instrumentation offered by Deltadot has created a new paradigm in biotechnology - label free intrinsic imaging - which allows direct monitoring of unlabelled biomolecules at unrivalled resolution with unique sensitivity.
