Jun 23, 2022

Magnetic Insight , an Alameda, Calif.-based imaging diagnostics company, raised $17m in Series B funding. The round was led by Celesta Capital, with participation from Alumni Ventures Group, Gaingels, and others, along with existing investors 5AM Ventures and Sand Hill Angels. The company intends to use the funds for the continued growth and expansion of its innovative Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) technology into clinical applications. Magnetic Insight’s goal is to offer clinicians a method to directly monitor cell therapy, enabling better and earlier clinical decisions, and optimal clinical outcomes. Their initial clinical application will focus on using MPI technology to monitor cell therapy (e.g., CAR-T, NK) in cancer patients. Cell therapy has fundamentally changed the cancer treatment landscape, showing impressive results in blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. Unfortunately, the solid tumor landscape has proven more challenging due to an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment that frequently excludes or inhibits cell therapy. Currently, there is no direct imaging method to monitor cell therapy localization in solid tumors to predict and monitor treatment responses. “Bringing MPI to the clinic is where we will get to see this phenomenal technology flourish and directly impact patient outcomes,” said  Led by Patrick Goodwill, CEO, CTO, and Co-founder, and Steven Conolly, PhD, Co-founder of Magnetic Insight, the Cook Professor of Bioengineering, and a Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley, Magnetic Insight has advanced magnetic particle imaging (MPI), a new diagnostic and monitoring technology platform that allows clinicians to directly monitor a cancer patient’s cell therapy location, migration, persistence, and quantity to inform clinical decision making. By directly imaging cell therapy in each patient, MPI captures cellular-level information unavailable from conventional imaging modalities, including CT, MRI, or nuclear medicine. Having started in the preclinical space by selling small animal products to leading universities worldwide, the company is now scaling up MPI technology for clinical use. The suite includes the Momentum CT MPI imager, VivoTrax and VivoTrax+ reagents, Relax MPI relaxometry software, and MagImage imaging analysis software. Multiple academic medical centers are utilizing Magnetic Insight products including Stanford Medicine, Michigan State University, University of Florida, Robarts Research Institute, Wenzhou Medical University, Karolinska Institute, University of New South Wales, Johns Hopkins University, and others. FinSMEs