19 September 2017 - - US-based RNA sequencing and expression analysis platform Cofactor Genomics has raised USD 18m in a financing led by Menlo Ventures with major participation from existing investor Data Collective (DCVC) and new investor Ascension Ventures, and participation from existing and new investors iSelect, Y Combinator, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, and Stanford, the company said.

The company welcomes Mark Siegel (Menlo Ventures), Matt Ocko (DCVC), and John Kuelper (Ascension Ventures) to its board of directors.

This investment comes on the heels of Cofactor securing CAP/CLIA accreditation of its platform in order to process clinical-grade formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) patient samples, as well as the validation and launch of two initial products: Pinnacle and Paragon.

Pinnacle examines nearly 600 RNA biomarkers known to be associated with response to targeted therapeutics, while Paragon is an RNA-based immunophenotyping assay with broad applications to the field of immuno-oncology and beyond.

While most attention has been paid to applications of DNA analysis for precision medicine, Cofactor's team of past Human Genome Project scientists have spent the last four years optimising its platform specifically for the analysis of RNA, a rich source of information on the molecular mechanisms involved in complex and heterogeneous diseases such as cancer that cannot be uncovered through DNA alone.

Cofactor Genomics uses RNA to help researchers and clinicians understand, diagnose, and predict drug response for the 95% of disease that can't be assessed by DNA alone.

Founded by three former Human Genome Project scientists, Cofactor has built a proprietary platform capable of overcoming the chemical and computational challenges of performing complex RNA fingerprint analysis on clinical-grade human samples.

Cofactor said it has contracts to provide RNA sequencing and analysis services to the research arms of eight of the world's largest pharma and biotech companies, and is in the process of commercializing a suite of clinical diagnostic assays targeting oncologic, immunologic, and neurodegenerative diseases.