Magnitude Biosciences Secures $1.72M to Scale C. elegans High-Throughput In Vivo Screening Platform
Contract research organization and Durham University spinout Magnitude Biosciences has closed a $1.72 million investment round to accelerate the commercial scale-up of its flagship in vivo high-throughput screening (HTS) technology, VivoScan.
Conventional early-stage drug screening typically evaluates compound interactions against isolated molecular targets or single cell lines, frequently failing to predict systemic efficacy or complex toxicity. VivoScan circumvents this limitation by utilizing populations of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as an intact biological model.
By merging organismal testing with automated handling, robotics, advanced imaging, and machine learning models, the platform captures multi-parametric phenotypic readouts across a living system within weeks rather than years. This capability offers a predictive, non-mammalian alternative designed to streamline early candidate selection.
Magnitude Biosciences intends to deploy the fresh capital to expand its automated infrastructure, grow its technical headcount, and deepen commercial collaborations with international pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. Dr. Fozia Saleem, CEO of Magnitude Biosciences, emphasized that the funding paves the way for the company’s long-term objective: building a framework capable of screening millions of compounds within a whole organism. By generating rich biological datasets early in the discovery pipeline, the platform aims to better guide candidate prioritization for complex therapeutic categories such as aging, longevity, and neurodegenerative conditions where standard preclinical models often fall short.
The financing was steered by Northstar Ventures via the North East Spinout Inspire Fund, the North East Innovation Fund, and the Northstar EIS Growth Fund, alongside contributions from Maven’s regional funds and private angel investors. The equity injection also unlocked an additional $287,000 grant through an Innovate UK Investor Partnership.
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