MOBILion Systems Secures $15.4M Series A Funding to Advance SLIM Technology for Drug Development

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned from Business Wire that on November 12, 2019, life sciences company MOBILion Systems announced the completion of a $15.4 million Series A financing round. The round was led by Agilent Technologies, with participation from Hostplus, Cultivation Capital, and iSELECT Fund.

MOBILion intends to use this funding to support the development of Structures for Lossless Ion Manipulations (SLIM) technology, a patented ion mobility separation technique. This technology can provide the pharmaceutical industry with unprecedented high-resolution, high-throughput analysis, significantly enhancing the characterization of biotherapeutics and accelerating biomarker discovery.

MOBILion is headquartered in Chadds Ford, located within the biopharmaceutical and healthcare innovation corridor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The company is developing an advanced instrumental analysis platform capable of effectively identifying the most challenging molecules, thereby accelerating biopharmaceutical development and enhancing existing diagnostic insights.

Genomics is commonly regarded as the key to improving disease prediction, diagnosis, and treatment; however, only a small fraction of diseases are directly linked to genetic mutations. The company believes that to effectively combat diseases, the industry needs to expand its research scope beyond genomics to study biomolecules such as proteins, lipids, and metabolites. The identification of disease signatures relies on the detection of biomolecules outside the genome, but progress in this area has been hindered by the current lack of high-resolution instruments.

MOBILion Systems’ instruments deliver unprecedented speed and resolution, enabling rapid detection of clinically relevant molecules—such as proteins, peptides, metabolites, glycans, and lipids—as well as molecules undetectable by existing platforms. This capability empowers researchers and clinicians with enhanced tools for disease prediction, diagnosis, and treatment, thereby accelerating biopharmaceutical development and biomarker discovery.

MOBILion aims to commercialize products based on SLIM technology, which integrates with multiple industry-leading mass spectrometry platforms, significantly expanding the capabilities of current liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analytical workflows and effectively revealing previously undetectable molecules. SLIM technology can be integrated into LC-MS workflows to provide more reliable analytical information and, in certain applications, replace liquid chromatography. Furthermore, MOBILion is developing a more user-friendly, simplified standalone slim-line product that does not require integration with a mass spectrometer, facilitating its adoption in pharmaceutical quality control and diagnostic laboratories.

Dr. Sherman, CEO of MOBILion Systems, stated, “Our products effectively identify molecules that current separation technologies cannot detect. By collaborating with pharmaceutical companies to address the inadequate characterization of biological therapeutics, we improve the entire drug development process. With unprecedented high resolution and a throughput of 1,000 samples per week, SLIM enables large-scale sample analysis, biomarker discovery, and answers to numerous biological questions that other technologies cannot resolve. This round of financing will further advance disease diagnosis and treatment technologies.”

In addition to expanding its team and advancing product development, MOBILion also plans to advance its drug and diagnostic technology development programs in collaboration with biopharmaceutical and academic partners, as well as through a new application development laboratory.

Agilent Technologies, established in 1999, is a biotechnology company headquartered in California, USA. The company provides laboratory services for environmental testing, academic research, medical diagnostics, drug discovery, and more to analytical scientists and clinical researchers worldwide.

Hostplus is an Australian private equity firm and an industry superannuation fund dedicated to the hospitality, tourism, leisure, and sports sectors.

Cultivation Capital, established in 2002, is a venture capital firm based in Missouri, USA, primarily investing in early-stage technology, software, and life sciences companies.

About iSELECT Fund

iSELECT Fund, established in 2013 and headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, is a personalized private venture fund designed for accredited investors.

(Compiled by Jiang Ying)