Angel Academe supports BeamLine Diagnostics’ £650k investment round

Angel Academe is delighted to announce its latest investment in Beamline Diagnostics. Beamline, developers of an innovative biopsy triaging system, founded by Dr. Liberty Foreman and Dr. Katherine Willetts, has closed a £650k investment round which was led by a syndicate of Angels in MedCity (AiMC) and other investors.

BeamLine Diagnostics are also pleased to announce the appointment of new Chairman, Dr. Ian Smith. Ian was the founder and previous chairman for Synexus the world’s leading global clinical site management organisation. Ian has been involved in over 1500 clinical trials in a variety of areas. He has led feasibility on approximately 200 protocols per year for over 18 years and was recently awarded the Institute of Clinical Research “Award for Outstanding Achievement” and was recently awarded the MBE for services to Health Research.

The BeamLine Solas, a biopsy triaging system, combines data analysis methods with commercially-available hardware to provide a rapid, accurate and cost-effective system for screening biopsies at the point-of-care. The system integrates with existing clinical workflows, does not require extensive staff retraining, and results from each biopsy are returned within a few seconds.

Solas enables biopsies to be simply screened at the bedside, identifying over half of healthy samples (based on current performance) with 99% certainty within minutes. This reduces the total number of samples sent to pathology, allowing for faster turnaround of the samples received and, overall, gives patients a better service, less stress and a greater peace of mind.

This new round of funding will facilitate further product development and deliver a “first in-clinic” trial. The Angel Academe round was led by Zarja Cibej.

Liberty Foreman, BeamLine Diagnostic CEO, said:“We are really excited to be starting the next phase of BeamLine and initiating our first in-clinic trials. Being part of Angels in Medcity and Angel Academe has offered us such diverse but relevant experience that has and will greatly accelerate our growth.”

Ian Smith, BeamLine Diagnostic Chairman, said:“I am really excited to be a part of the development of BeamLine Diagnostics. As the Global Medical Director of Synexus, I believe that their product has the ability to revolutionise diagnostics with as little disruption as possible, key to the success of any medical technology. I can also see huge cost savings in the clinical trial setting where multiple tissue biopsies are needed.”