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February 6, 2018

AgenDx Biosciences Inc., an early stage molecular diagnostics company focused on improving the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer, today announced that it closed its seed financing, raising a total of $1.525 million.

The investors include Elevate Ventures, The Judd Leighton Foundation, IrishAngels, The University of Notre Dame, and several angel investors.

“We are delighted to have an excellent foundation of institutional and individual investors.” said Kevin Connors, AgenDx Biosciences CEO. “We have made great progress toward the development of a platform that solves meaningful unmet clinical needs, and this capital will allow us to achieve additional critical engineering and clinical milestones.”

“Pancreatic cancer is relatively rare, but hard to detect in its early stages and is usually fatal.  The initial application for the company’s technology, licensed from the University of Notre Dame, is to provide early, cost-effective detection,” said Joerg Schreiber, AgenDx Biosciences Vice President of Research and Development.

Initially, the technology would be used to identify biomarkers that can rapidly determine whether a chemotherapy commonly used to treat pancreatic cancer is having the desired effect.  The company’s ultimate goal is to use the same technology to detect pancreatic cancer early in those at an elevated risk for the disease.

About AgenDx Biosciences, Inc.

AgenDx is based in South Bend, Indiana and is commercializing novel technologies licensed from both the Center for Microfluidics and Medical Diagnostics and the Harper Cancer Research Center at the University of Notre Dame to bring accurate and cost-effective molecular diagnostics to transform where and how disease is detected and treated.   The company’s initial application is as a diagnostic for Pancreatic Cancer. agendxbio.com

About Elevate Ventures

Elevate Ventures is a private venture development organization that nurtures and develops emerging and existing high-growth businesses into high-performing, Indiana-based companies. Elevate Ventures accomplishes this by providing access to capital, rigorous business analysis and robust advisory services that connect companies with the right mix of resources businesses need to succeed long term. To learn more about Elevate Ventures, visit elevateventures.com.

About The Judd Leighton Foundation

The Leighton Foundation is dedicated to perpetuating the vision of its founder, Judd Leighton.  An independent, private grant-making foundation, the Foundation focuses on three primary areas – health, education and economic development.

About IrishAngels

IrishAngels is dedicated to funding high potential startups across the country in which a founder, Board member, or active investor is a graduate, student, parent, or faculty member at the University of Notre Dame. IrishAngels facilitates entrepreneurial success and exceptional ROI through close advisory relationships with its portfolio companies.

About Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame is one of America’s leading undergraduate teaching institutions. Notre Dame also has been at the forefront in research and scholarship. Today researchers are achieving breakthroughs in astrophysics, radiation chemistry, environmental sciences, tropical disease transmission, peace studies, cancer, microfluidics, robotics, and nanoelectronics.