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20/20 GeneSystems is a revenue stage diagnostics company that markets a blood test for the early detection of lung cancer.  Several marketing partnerships entered in late 2014 should permit a nationwide expansion in 2015.  A JV with a multi-billion dollar Chinese company is expected to lead to commercialization of the lung cancer test in China in the near term.   20/20 also is developing companion tests to targeted cancer therapies.   

In 2014 we raised $1.2 million from our existing shareholders and members of the Keiretsu Forum, the nation's largest network of Angel investors.   A Term Sheet and Due Diligence package has been prepared by Keiretsu Forum members with expertise in healthcare investing and molecular diagnostics.  

Advent Life Sciences

We invest predominantly in early and mid-stage life sciences companies.  We seek to back truly innovative companies that have a first-in-class or best-in-class approach and who are looking for a well-connected partner on the road to success.

Our investments cover a range of sectors within life sciences, including new drug discovery, enabling technologies, med tech and diagnostics.Advent Life Sciences is one of Europe’s leading venture teams investing in life sciences businesses. We are a deliberately small, and highly focused team of senior individuals, with long-standing track records of entrepreneurial and investment success across the UK, Europe and the USA.

Real people. Real insight. Real value.

Innovation. Clarity. Execution.

Aperiomics, Inc. is a next generation sequencing service company with a mission to detect virtually any pathogen from any clinical, agricultural, or environmental sample.  This service platform uses a combination of next-generation sequencing and advanced bioinformatic data analysis to identify pathogens in various samples.  Aperiomics’ proprietary service platform focuses on pathogens of public and animal health importance, satisfying the increasing need for more robust and more efficient next-generation sequencing data analysis.

The impact of Aperiomics’ technologies is broad due to our unique approach to pathogen detection. Instead of blindly probing for a proverbial ‘needle in a haystack’, Aperiomics’ approach analyzes the entire ‘haystack’ using next-generation sequencing and harnessing the power of bioinformatics to identify all ‘needles’. This approach is transformative compared to current pathogen detection methods. Aperiomics’ proprietary service, Absolute*NGS Pathogen Detection Platform, screens samples (clinical, environmental, etc.) for the presence of any microbe (fungal, viral, bacterial, eukaryotic parasite) – including pathogens that have never before been identified. This platform technology has broad application across diverse markets such as health care, agriculture, environmental, industrial, and veterinary testing.

Armune BioScience is a medical diagnostics company formed to develop and commercialize unique technology for diagnostic and prognostic tests for prostate, lung and breast cancers. The technology is unique because it utilizes autoantibodies created by the body’s own immune system to detect cancer at an early stage. When the immune system recognizes a cancer antigen it creates an autoantibody to the antigen which is replicated by the immune system. Armune’s technology can be used to detect these autoantibodies in serum.

Early detection and prognosis of cancer is critical not only in selecting appropriate treatment protocols, but also in increasing 5-year survival rates among cancer patients. Cancer detection in early stages is typically performed by detecting cancer-specific serum antigens. Unfortunately, cancer serum antigens are present at very low levels in early stage disease. Also, a single detectable cancer antigen may not be present in all patients due to heterogeneity of the disease and therefore multiple biomarkers are needed. Detection of serum autoantibody responses to tumor antigens provides more reliable serum marker(s) for cancer diagnosis. Serum autoantibodies are more stable than serum antigens and may be more abundant than antigens, especially at low tumor burdens characteristic of early stage cancer. The technology does not detect cancer per se, but looks for the immune response to cancer.

Armune’s initial focus is on a prostate cancer diagnostic test. The PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test is currently used as a prostate cancer diagnostic test and it has good sensitivity (~86%), but very poor specificity (20 to 30%) resulting in high false positive rates (70 to 80%) and many unnecessary biopsies and costs.

Baxter Ventures is the strategic venture arm of Baxter International Inc. that was formed in 2011 and is based in Deerfield, Illinois. The firm is currently making equity investments out of a $200 Million fund with allocations generally falling in the $3-$5 million range. The firm is looking in invest in companies who have previously or are currently in the process of securing investment from other institutional investors. The firm is willing to look globally for investment opportunities and plans to make approximately 2 new investments over the next 6-9 months.

Cavidi is a Swedish based diagnostic company that has developed a novel method for measuring HIV viral load in patients recieving anti-retroviral therapy for treatment of HIV. Viral load is a critical indicator of the effectiveness of HIV therapy, and has been the standard of care in the developed world for many years. Just recently the World Health Organization (WHO) updated its recommendations to include viral load for patients in the developing world where the vast majority of HIV patients exists, and a large influx of international funding has significantly increased aceess to HIV drugs. The Cavidi method is novel in that it measures the viral enzyme reverse transcriptase (RT), and not viral nucleic acid (RNA) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The Cavidi method is not subject to the logistical challenges of PCR such as contamination risk. The Cavidi RT assay is much less expensive and can be performed in labs that lack the sophisitication to perform technologies such as PCR. Therfore, the Cavidi assay significantly improves access to this vitally important technology. For the past several years a manual version of the Cavidi technology has been utilized in laboratories in the developing world. The performance of the assay has been validated vs the industry leading PCR methods in many peer review publications. The company is now seeking funding to develop an automated version of the assay that will make it more widely adaptable to many laborartories.