Date: Nov 14, 2014 Author: David L. Harris Source: bizjournals (
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Diagnostics startup Sample6 recently moved its headquarters to Cambridge from Boston's Seaport District and raised an additional $2.5 million from the founder of the company, who also works as a biological engineering professor at MIT.
The latest funding comes from Tim Lu, Sample6 founder and board member.
Sample6, whose CEO is Tim Curran, has raised an additional $2.5 million from founder Tim Lu.
The company last year raised an $11 million Series B round led by Canaan Partners, and also included Cultivian Sandbox (a fund backing new technologies in the food and agriculture industry) and Flybridge Capital Partners of Boston, which led the company's $5.75 million Series A (when the company was known as Novophage).
Sample6 recently moved its office in August from the Seaport to an 8,900-square-foot space at 840 Memorial Drive in Cambridge, where it currently has 25 employees.
Sample6 has two products -- a diagnostic assay which is designed to identify Listeria contamination, and a software platform used by food companies to "plan, execute, remediate and analyze food safety programs," the company said in a news release.
Using synthetic biology combined with sensors and data modeling, the company aims to detect bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria much faster than currently-available tests can detect.
The company was founded in 2009 based on technology developed by Tim Lu, assistant professor at MIT, and Jim Collins, a professor at Boston University and a founding professor at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University (Collins was named BU's 2012 Innovator of the Year in July 2012 for his work).
David Harris oversees the Boston Business Journal's digital content.
