Anyone who has had a malignant tumor removed knows the anxiety that follows. Did any traces of cancer remain, and if it returns, will doctors catch it before it’s too late? To reduce the uncertainty and improve patient outcomes, C2i Genomics Inc. has raised a $100 million series B funding round led by Casdin Capital to advance software that is 100 times more sensitive in detecting residual disease than legacy technologies.

Invitae Corp. has inked a definitive agreement to acquire Genosity Inc., a genomics company with a technology platform for next-generation sequencing (NGS) assays, for approximately $200 million in cash and stock. Separately, the medical genetic testing company reported a $1.15 billion investment, led by Softbank Group subsidiary SB Management, to support ongoing growth initiatives. San Francisco-based Invitae expects the Genosity platform to accelerate the development and launch of its oncology products, including three tests that won FDA breakthrough device designation.

By mid-January 2021, the U.K., South Africa and Brazil had confirmed that “variants of concern” were driving massive surges in COVID-19 cases in their countries. Once alerted, other nations found these troubling strains rapidly multiplying within their populations as well. At the time, the world had reported 90 million cases, creating abundant opportunities for the coronavirus to mutate. Of those cases, the virus in just 360,000 had been sequenced – and nearly all of them from just a handful of countries.