University of Washington cancer diagnostics spinout Bellwether Bio has been acquired by Guardant Health, which plans to integrate the former's expertise to advance its own pipeline.

Bellwether Bio, a US-based oncological diagnostics spinout of University of Washington, has been acquired by early cancer detection test company Guardant Health for an undisclosed sum. Bellwether Bio is developing a cancer diagnostics approach that is intended to catch the disease earlier and more accurately than  tests available to clinicians at present. Bellwether’s approach focuses on searching for epigenetic changes associated with circulating cell-free DNA, small fragments that have splintered from cellular tissues such as tumours to drift without hindrance in the patient’s bloodstream. The company was spun out in 2016 and is based on research conducted in the lab of Jay Shendure, a professor in University of Washington’s Department of Genome Sciences. Following the acquisition, Bellwether Bio’s research team will collaborate with Guardant Health to progress the latter company’s pipeline of early-detection cancer diagnostic products. Bellwether Bio has seemingly not disclosed equity funding, however regulatory filings state it secured $2.8m and $175,000 of debt financing in April 2017 and May 2018 respectively. The spinout received assistance through University of Washington’s CoMotion tech transfer office, which typically takes up equity in exchange for providing its services.

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