A spinoff of New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System that aims to predict autism in babies using a single strand of hair has raised $16 million in series A funding.
LinusBio is developing a platform to identify precision exposome biomarkers for such conditions as pediatric cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, psychosis, schizophrenia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
"Our mission is simple: to deliver better outcomes for people and families affected by complex health conditions," said Manish Arora, PhD, co-founder and CEO of LinusBio and professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in a Jan. 12 news release. "We chose to focus on autism first for many considerations, an important one of them is the dramatically different trajectory in cases of an early detection and effective intervention."
LinusBio, which was developed with Mount Sinai Innovation Partners, said one of its early technologies can predict the likelihood of autism at birth with 80 percent to 90 percent accuracy.
The funding round was led by GreatPoint Ventures and Bow Capital.