Xconomy: With New Funding, Avelas Moves Closer to Color-Coded Cancer Map
Summary
The new round brings the startup’s total funding to about $14 million since 2009, when Avelas was founded by Roger Tsien, a Noble laureate at UC San Diego, and Kevin Kinsella of San Diego’s Avalon Ventures.The company is moving rapidly toward a big inflection point in terms of gathering the necessary data, Stengone said.“The goal is to have our IND [Investigational New Drug application] on file by mid-year.” First-in-patient cases could be done after that, with data expected sometime in 2015.Stengone also serves as CEO of the reconstituted Afraxis, an Avalon portfolio company with technology to assess the effectiveness of potential drug compounds in disorders of the central nervous system.It is operating more as a service business, however, and Stengone said he plans to spend the “vast majority” of his time at Avelas.