Monthly Archives: June 2022

June 29, 2022 | Funding for single-cell sequencing, small molecule drug discovery, neurological biomarkers, and more.

$245M: Debut Fund for Life Sciences Technology

Biospring Partners, a female-founded and led growth equity firm exclusively focused on B2B life sciences technology companies, announced the closing of its debut fund with north of $245 million in capital commitments from pension plans, fund of funds, endowments, foundations, and family offices. Biosprings investments are working to push the healthcare industry forward by enabling new forms of biopharma manufacturing, diagnostic testing, and software applications that are fundamentally changing how diseases are researched, diagnosed, and treated.

$60M: Series D Funding for Drug Discovery Robotics

Insilico Medicine, a clinical-stage end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, has completed a $60 million Series D financing and launched an AI-powered drug discovery robotics laboratory. Capital raised in the round will further bolster Insilicos financial position and fuel the growth of its advancing pipeline, including its lead program, which is currently in a Phase I study, and the continued development of its Pharma.AI platform. In addition, the proceeds will fund ongoing global expansion and planned strategic initiatives, including a fully robotic biological data factory to complement Insilicos vast curated data assets.

$52M: Funding Round for Precision Immunology Pipeline

Endpoint Health, a therapeutics company dedicated to addressing unmet needs in immune-mediated acute and chronic diseases, announced the close of $52 million in equity and debt financing. Proceeds from the funding round will extend the companys precision-first platform and expand its therapeutic pipeline to include programs for chronic immune-mediated diseases. In addition, proceeds will be used to advance Antithrombin III, the companys first precision therapy, to a Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of sepsis. Sepsis is responsible for one in every five deaths worldwide, yet there are few FDA-approved therapies to treat the condition.

$43M: Series F Funding for Cancer Profiling

Epic Sciences, a privately held diagnostics company, has completed a $43 million first close of its Series F financing. The company will use the capital from this additional round of private investment to advance its multi-omic platform and expand operations in areas such as single-cell sequencing and data analytics infrastructure. DefineMBC, Epic's novel blood-based test for comprehensively characterizing metastatic breast cancer, has been reporting patient results since April 2022. The test's multi-analyte methods have demonstrated impressive sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and precision.

$40M: Series A Funding for Clinical Sequencing

Watchmaker Genomics, a life sciences company specializing in developing high-stringency applications focused on reading, writing, and editing DNA and RNA, announced that it had secured $40 million in an oversubscribed Series A, bringing total funding to date to $53.5 million. With this Series A round of financing, Watchmaker plans to accelerate investment in its protein engineering platform to deliver a suite of new products that address the demands of clinical sequencing and support emerging applications in single-cell analysis, epigenetics, and cell-free DNA. In addition, the company will expand commercial channels and manufacturing capacity, making these product solutions more broadly accessible to the life science and genomics communities.

$37M: Series C Funding for AI-Enabled Precision Oncology

Proscia, a digital and computational pathology solutions company, has raised $37 million to advance how we understand and treat diseases like cancer. This investment brings Proscia's total funding to $72 million. The financing will enable Proscia to accelerate the adoption of computational pathology, strengthening its market and product leadership. It will also use the capital infusion to scale its commercial operation, broaden its portfolio of computational solutions, build on its DermAI and AI melanoma detection success, and extend digital pathology's first suite of process automation solutions beyond Automated QC.

$36.5M: Venture Fund for Genomics Startups

Illumina and LifeArc, a UK independent medical research charity, joined select U.S. and European investors in participating in Time Boost Capitals 30 million genomics venture fund. Time Boost Capital will provide pound-for-pound match funding to every Illumina Accelerator Cambridge graduate securing between 500,000 and 4 million in new capital from qualified investors within 18 months of acceptance. Since opening in July 2020, Illumina Accelerator Cambridge has launched 13 startups focused on harnessing genomics applications to improve human health, including novel therapeutics, diagnostics, synthetic biology, research tools, and agriculture.

$36M: Award for AI-Powered Viral Study Program

A $36 million award from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a part of the Department of Defense, will enable the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) to establish a research and development program to study how a virus will invade and infect humans. The program, Pathogenesis and Toxicity Forecasting Using Multi-Organoid Systems, or PATMOS, uses WFIRMs Body-on-a-Chip platform to investigate the biochemical changes in viral infections. The platform consists of an advanced 3D model of human tissues or organs. The PATMOS program will infect the 3D organs, or organoids, with different viruses and analyze what happens throughout an infection.

$30M: Series A Funding for Small Molecule Drug Discovery

Anagenex, a drug discovery company pairing large-scale data generation with machine learning to discover the next generation of small molecule medicines, announced that it closed a $30 million Series A financing round. Anagenex will use the funds to expand its novel data-generating platform and build a robust pipeline of programs addressing challenging unmet medical needs. The Anagenex platform iteratively assesses up to billions of compounds in parallel to generate extraordinarily high-quality data. Armed with these enormous datasets and highly accurate models, Anagenex has the tools to address some of the most challenging targets in drug discovery.

$27M: Series B Funding for Heart Disease Diagnostics

Elucid announced closing a $27 Million Series B financing round. The Elucid platform is the only FDA-Cleared and CE-Marked software to quantify plaque morphology validated against tissue specimens objectively. Specifically, the exquisite algorithms developed through machine learning characterize tissue types in the artery wall known to cause heart attacks. The capability to discern complex plaque biology at the cellular and molecular level is powering new applications to derive fractional flow reserve, risk of heart attack/stroke, and expression prediction. This comprehensive approach enables physicians to diagnose the direct cause of chest pain and determine if patients have early-stage heart disease, which alternative methods cannot see.

$25M: Series A Funding for Neurological Diseases

NeuraLight, a company developing objective and sensitive biomarkers for neurological disorders, announced $25 million in Series A funding. The round will support the company as it seeks to improve the design of neurological clinical trials, increase the probability of success for novel neurological therapeutics, and usher in a new era of precision medicine for neurology. NeuraLight leverages proprietary computer vision and deep learning algorithms to extract all relevant oculometric markers from facial videos captured with a standard webcam or smartphone. The companys technology applies to various neurological disorders, initially focused on Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and ALS.

$21M: Series A Funding for Early Detection Cancer Test

Elypta, a Swedish diagnostics company aiming to commercialize the first metabolism-based liquid biopsy for early detection of any cancer, announced the raise of $21 million in a Series A financing round led by Bonnier Ventures. The company will use the capital to develop and validate blood and urine tests for Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED) in adults with no cancer symptoms and to detect recurrence in kidney cancer patients. The tests are based on the detailed profiling of human glycosaminoglycansalso known as the GAGomeas biomarkers of cancer metabolism. Detecting stage I cancer is the key challenge here, and whereas other MCED tests based on cell-free DNA struggle to find cancer at this early stage, metabolism-based biomarkers could make a difference.

$19M: Series A Funding for Gastrointestinal Diagnostics

Gemelli Biotech, a company focused on improving health by providing precision diagnostics for gastrointestinal diseases, announced the completion of a $19 million Series A financing. Gemelli will use the capital to accelerate the commercialization of its trio-smart and ibs-smart precision diagnostic tests, including expanding sales and marketing across the US and the scale-up of laboratory and manufacturing capacity. Gemelli has launched two products: trio-smartthe only clinical breath test that measures levels of hydrogen, methane, and hydrogen sulfide to provide clinicians and patients with a complete picture of gut healthand ibs-smarta patented diagnostic blood test for post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome.

$10M: Funding for Immunotherapy Research

The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy announced a new $10 million commitment to Johns Hopkins University. This investment allows for novel work, advanced immunotherapy research, and lifesaving breakthroughs for cancer patients. The Mark Foundation Centers fundamental research priorities include studying how cancer evades the immune system and spreads. Of the $10 million investment, The Mark Foundation is donating $6 million, and BKI is providing $4 million, helping scientific teams to continue using innovative technologies to determine why certain patients do not respond to immunotherapies.

$9M: Research Grant for Lung Cancer Technology

The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania received a five-year, $9 million research grant from the National Cancer Institute for imaging technology that illuminates lung tumor tissue, helping clinicians detect and remove it. This technology, intraoperative molecular imaging (IMI), is based on fluorescent beacon molecules that target and bind themselves to tumor cells, essentially making them glow, allowing doctors to distinguish cancer from healthy tissue easily. Penn researchers with the Center for Precision Surgery in the Abramson Cancer Center and colleagues at other institutions will use the research grant to study and improve IMI technology for non-small-cell lung cancers.

$2.9M: Funding for Tumor Antibody Drug Conjugates

Spirea Limited, a Cambridge company created to advance a new generation of antibody drug conjugate (ADC) therapeutics, announced that it secured funding of 2.4 million with investments from high-profile UK and US investors. Spirea will use the funds to initiate its pipeline of superior and differentiated ADCs to treat solid tumors. Spireas technology allows for a higher drug-to-antibody ratio, which means more drugs reach the cancer cell for the development of stable and tailored ADCs incorporating a variety of drug payloads at varying potency levels and different modes of action. This method will result in significantly better efficacy and safety profiles for cancer therapeutics.

Undisclosed Funding for Drug Discovery Technology

Optibrium, a drug discovery software developer, announced it had secured further investment from existing investors Kester Capitala UK mid-market private equity firmto develop and commercialize its computer-aided drug discovery technologies, make future appointments to the senior leadership team, and continue expansion across Europe and the United States. Optibriums products enable preclinical drug discovery, focusing on hit to lead and lead optimization phases extracting maximum value from pharmaceutical data to target high-quality compounds and accelerate discovery cycles confidently.

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Follow the Money: Drug Discovery Robotics Lab, Clinical Sequencing Platform, More - Bio-IT World

This photo provided by Hyundai Robotics Co. shows the companys disinfection robot.

SEOUL, July 1 (Korea Bizwire) Hyundai Robotics Co., the largest industrial robot manufacturer in South Korea, said Thursday it will release an innovative disinfection robot enabling face-to-face disinfection.

The newly-developed robot uses plasma sterilization, a method that has been used for the sterilization of surgical instruments at hospitals, to sterilize the air, while carrying out floor sterilization using ultraviolet-C (UV-C) LEDs installed on its underside that enable face-to-face disinfection.

The existing disinfection robots in the market typically spray disinfectants that are harmful to humans, while being limited only to non-face-to-face disinfection since UV-C lamps causing skin diseases are installed on the front.

Hyundai Robotics disinfection robot removes various harmful bacteria through its internal plasma sterilization and emits purified air from a vent at the top.

Mounted with eight different types of sensors, it can sense ultra-fine dust and organic chemical compounds in the air and intake and purify them through three-tiered filters.

The robot can disinfect an area of 152 square meters without moving, and can also operate in a self-driving mode. Accordingly, it can carry out disinfection work in lobbies and hallways of buildings where it is hard to install air purifiers and sterilizers.

Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)

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Hyundai Robotics Rolls Out Face-to-Face Disinfection Robot - The Korea Bizwire

The Delhi Board of School Education (DBSE) has roped in experts from IIT Delhi to design the robotics and automation curriculum for the city government's Schools of Specialised Excellence (SoSE), according to officials.

Through this curriculum, students will be trained in different aspects of robotics and automation which will enable them to pursue higher education and diverse careers pathways in the field, they said. "It is important that schools now start offering courses beyond the regular subjects.

The future will appreciate individuals with adept skill set in areas of new generation technologies like robotics, automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, which is going to be the norm of functioning for every industry in the near future," Himanshu Gupta, Education Director, said. "With this in mind, the SoSE has put IIT Delhi's Technology Innovation Hub and I-Hub Foundation for Cobotics (IHFC) in charge of designing the syllabus, which will be more progressive and industry-relevant in terms of robotics and automation including but not limited to mechanics, electronics, robotics programming, IoT etc.

The whole idea is to curate teaching material and content for ease of learning," he said. Gupta explained that the IHFC will collaborate with industry partners and players to create an industry-relevant curriculum that will render SoSE students employable in aspirational job roles after four years of specialised study in the domain of robotics and automation.

IHFC will also extend support by lending the expertise of industry partners, academia partners and the alumni in designing experiential learning opportunities for students such as internship, apprenticeship, guest lectures, masterclasses, visits and projects, which will contribute to an immersive and hands-on learning.

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IIT Delhi plans for robotics and automation - The Hans India

Mentions of robotics within the filings of companies in the automotive industry fell 32% between the final quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.

In total, the frequency of sentences related to robotics between April 2021 and March 2022 was 60% higher than in 2016 when GlobalData, from whom our data for this article is taken, first began to track the key issues referred to in company filings.

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When companies in the automotive industry publish annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports and other filings, GlobalData analyses the text and identifies individual sentences that relate to disruptive forces facing companies in the coming years. Robotics is one of these topics companies that excel and invest in these areas are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.

To assess whether robotics is featuring more in the summaries and strategies of companies in the automotive industry, two measures were calculated. Firstly, we looked at the percentage of companies which have mentioned robotics at least once in filings during the past twelve months this was 51% compared to 33% in 2016. Secondly, we calculated the percentage of total analysed sentences that referred to robotics.

Of the 10 biggest employers in the automotive industry, Denso was the company which referred to robotics the most between April 2021 and March 2022. GlobalData identified 10 robotics-related sentences in the Japan-based companys filings 0.3% of all sentences. Mercedes-Benz mentioned robotics the second most the issue was referred to in 0.13% of sentences in the companys filings. Other top employers with high robotics mentions included Stellantis, Magna and BYD.

Across all companies in the automotive industry the filing published in the first quarter of 2022 which exhibited the greatest focus on robotics came from Schaeffler. Of the documents 2,919 sentences, 13 (0.4%) referred to robotics.

This analysis provides an approximate indication of which companies are focusing on robotics and how important the issue is considered within the automotive industry, but it also has limitations and should be interpreted carefully. For example, a company mentioning robotics more regularly is not necessarily proof that they are utilising new techniques or prioritising the issue, nor does it indicate whether the companys ventures into robotics have been successes or failures.

In the last quarter, companies in the automotive industry based in Asia were most likely to mention robotics with 0.13% of sentences in company filings referring to the issue. In contrast, companies with their headquarters in the United States mentioned robotics in just 0.04% of sentences.

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Filings buzz in the automotive industry: 32% decrease in robotics mentions in Q1 of 2022 - just-auto.com

In a recent call with a customer, I was told they were looking to build a new facility and investigating installing a tow-line to index our build carts down the assembly line. The company really liked the flexibility and scalability of an automated guide vehicles (AGV) or autonomous mobile robots (AMR), but they believed a tow line may have a higher ROI.

On the surface, this customers initial inclinations seemed plausible. The assembly line under evaluation was 20 build stations, with moving build carts that were designed for up to 4000 lbs each. As we dug into the application, however, we quickly realized that it was not necessarily true that tow lines are vastly more cost efficient than AGVs. The same holds for AMRs, but given the weight of the product in this assembly line, an AMR solution was not appropriate.

Two ConsiderationsThe analysis began with a review of the processs takt time, that is, the time needed to complete a product to meet customer demand. The customers process was set to 46 minutes. We also examined how much time is allocated to each workstation before the line must index forward.

When assessing a process with long takt times for AGV vs tow line conveyance, there are two key considerations:

Build Carts and AGVsWith more time in station, AGVs have more time to move between stations. It is therefore critical to understand if the AGV must be dedicated to each build cart or if the carts and AGVs can be separate entities.

In many instances, there is no technical need for the AGV to be permanently connected to its companion frame cart that sits on top of it. In these scenarios, tunneling AGVs are a feasible solution that can lead to cost savings. This simulation highlights how only a small number of AGVs can be used to index an entire assembly line.

As the name implies, a tunneling AGV is a vehicle that tunnels underneath a build cart and engages via a pin mechanism. While the pin is engaged, the cart is coupled to the AGV and moves to where the AGV takes it. Once the AGV positions the carts in their next stop, the AGV disengages and is free to go move something else.

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AGVs & AMRs as Alternatives to Tow Line Conveyance - Robotics Business Review

NEW YORK, June 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global Crop Harvesting Robots Marketsize is expected to grow by USD 1455.57billion at a CAGR of 28.36% as per Technavio. Thereport extensively coverscrop harvesting robots marketsegmentation by product (fruit and vegetable harvesting robots and grain harvesting robots) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA).

Read the 120-page report with TOC on "Crop Harvesting Robots Market Analysis Report byProduct (Fruit and vegetable harvesting robots and Grain harvesting robots) and Geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA), and the Segment Forecasts".Buy the Sample Report Now!

The market is driven by the increasing focus on farm mechanization. In addition, the growing popularity of solar-powered crop harvesting robots is anticipated to boost the growth of the crop harvesting robots market.

Machines are steadily replacing people in agriculture in various countries and have significantly reshaped the agricultural landscape. The productivity of the farm has a direct relationship with the efficient utilization of farm implements. Crop harvesting robots have been gaining popularity as an effective solution for harvesting across farms, greenhouses, and nurseries. They have widely been used as an effective solution for labor shortage problems during the harvesting season in various countries.

Some of the crop harvesting robots commonly used are lettuce harvesters, cucumber harvesters, wheat harvesters, barley harvesters, and sweet pepper harvesters. Thus, the increasing focus on farm mechanization will drive the demand for crop harvesting, thereby driving market growth.

Download Sample:for more additional information about the Crop Harvesting Robots Market

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Crop Harvesting Robots Product Outlook (Revenue, USD mn, 2021-2025)

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Crop Harvesting Robots Market Scope

Report Coverage

Details

Page number

120

Base year

2020

Forecast period

2021-2025

Growth momentum & CAGR

Accelerate at a CAGR of 28.36%

Market growth 2021-2025

$ 1455.57 billion

Market structure

Fragmented

YoY growth (%)

26.16

Regional analysis

North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA

Performing market contribution

North America at 39%

Key consumer countries

US, Germany, UK, China, and France

Competitive landscape

Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope

Key companies profiled

Agrobot, Cerescon BV, Clearpath Robotics Inc., Dogtooth Technologies Ltd., Energid Technologies Corp., FFRobotics, Green Robot Machinery Pvt. Ltd., Harvest Automation, Harvest CROO Robotics, and Torguga Agricultural Technologies Inc.

Market dynamics

Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, Market condition analysis for forecast period

Customization purview

If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table of Contents

1 Executive Summary

2 Market Landscape

3 Market Sizing

4 Five Forces Analysis

5 Market Segmentation by Product

6 Customer landscape

7 Geographic Landscape

8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

9 Vendor Landscape

10 Vendor Analysis

11 Appendix

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contacts

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

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Email:media@technavio.com

Website:www.technavio.com/

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SOURCE Technavio

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Global Crop Harvesting Robots Market| Increasing focus on farm mechanization to boost market growth| Evolving Opportunities with Abundant Robotics...