A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Astute Medical (San Diego) reported that it has raised $6.25 million in an initial financing round led by De Novo Ventures.

The company said the proceeds will primarily be used to fund R&D aimed at the identification and validation of protein biomarkers with the goal of finding high potential diagnostic candidates.

"This investment is an exciting event that lays the foundation for our research and development activities," said Christopher Hibberd, CEO of Astute.

Astute, founded in 2007, is led by Hibberd and Paul McPherson, PhD, former members of the management at Biosite (San Diego), a diagnostics company acquired by Inverness Medical Innovations (Waltham, Massachusetts) in 2007 for $1.7 billion. Hibberd served at Biosite for 10 years, most recently as senior VP of corporate development. McPherson was at Biosite for 14 years, most recently as VP of R&D.

Astute said it is dedicated to improving diagnosis of high-risk medical conditions and diseases through the identification and validation of protein biomarkers that can serve as the basis for novel diagnostic tests.

The company says that its focus is on community- and hospital-acquired acute conditions that require rapid diagnosis and risk assessment. Its current areas of interest include abdominal pain, acute coronary syndrome, acute kidney injury, congestive heart failure, sepsis and cerebrovascular disease.

Invitrogen (Carlsbad, California) reported that its board has approved a 2-for-1 stock split of the company's common stock.

The board established May 16 as the record date and May 27 as the date on which additional shares will be distributed to shareholders.

Invitrogen is a provider of life science technologies for research, production and diagnostics. The company said that this will be its first stock split since it went public on the Nasdaq Exchange in 1999.