LONDON – Oxford Biodynamics plc won a $910,000 grant to help validate real-world use of its epigenetics test for identifying patients who will respond to treatment with checkpoint inhibitor drugs. The award was made as part of the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot.

Berry Oncology Corp. raised $99.15 million in a series B1 financing round to expand in the early cancer screening industry as it is seeing a growing demand in the sector. This brings the total capital raised to what it says is “the highest level in China’s early cancer screening industry.” The round was led by China Merchants Capital Management Co. Ltd., along with existing investors Qiming Venture Partners and Legend Capital.

Illumina Inc. and Merck & Co. Inc. are partnering to commercialize tests identifying genetic mutations used in the assessment of homologous recombination deficiency.

Centaur Diagnostics Inc. herded up interest in its gamified system for labeling medical data for use in artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The Boston-based company raised $12 million in a series A round that will help Centaur build out its crowdsourced system for labeling medical images, videos, text and audio recordings. The round brings the company’s funds raised to date to $15 million. Matrix Partners led the charge along with Accel Partners, Global Founders Capital, Susa Ventures, and Y Combinator.

LONDON – Breath biopsy specialist Owlstone Medical Ltd. closed a $58 million oversubscribed series D, bringing the total raised by the company since its formation in 2016 to over $150 million. The money will support further development of tests for lung cancer, liver disease and respiratory disease, and of a new class of diagnostics, which rather than measuring endogenous markers of disease, involve administering chemical probes and assessing how they are metabolized.

Illumina Inc. and Merck & Co. Inc. are partnering to commercialize tests identifying genetic mutations used in the assessment of homologous recombination deficiency (HRD). Patients whose tumors are HRD-positive may be eligible for targeted chemotherapy treatment by a class of precision medicines called PARP inhibitors. The companies will develop tests utilizing Illumina's Trusight Oncology 500 assay for genomic profiling, which is designed to identify 523 known and emerging tumor biomarkers.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health had its hands full with the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) program as the COVID-19 pandemic unwound, but the agency’s other work on diagnostics is bearing fruit. NIH said Aug. 31 that its collaboration with an academic research institute has led to development of a test that predicts which patients suffering from neurofibromatosis will develop cancers with metastatic potential.

PERTH, Australia – On the heels of a A$90 million (US$67.12 million) initial public offering on the Australian Securities Exchange, device company Trajan Group Holdings Ltd. has doubled its share price and is well poised for its next stage of global growth. Trajan makes precision consumable products, devices and solutions that used in analyzing biological samples.