Cancer diagnostics developer GeneCentric Diagnostics set out earlier this year to raise $2 million to launch a personalized medicine test for lung cancer.

The Durham company has raised $2.5 million and is setting out to raise $2.5 million more, according to securities filings. Former LabCorp (NYSE:LH) executive Dr. Myla Lai-Goldman is CEO of the company, which is developing tests that help doctors determine which cancer drugs work best for particular patients.

During CED’s annual Life Sciences Conference in February, Lai-Goldman said the company was raising $2 million to launch a test, build a new lab and hire key staff. According to securities filings, four investors so far have contributed to GeneCentric’s $2.5 million fundraising haul.

GeneCentric was co-founded in 2011 based on research by Drs. Charles Perou and Neil Hayes at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at UNC’s School of Medicine. Perou and Hayes discovered molecular signatures that are key in distinguishing clinically relevant subtypes of lung cancer.

Those discoveries were developed into GeneCentric’s two platform technologies. The Lung Subtype Platform, or LSP, categorizes lung cancer patients into subtypes, which helps doctors determine the appropriate treatments. Burlington-based LabCorp licensed and developed the first application of the LSP technology. It is now available through LabCorp’s Integrated Genetics division as HistoPlus Lung Cancer.

The second GeneCentric platform technology is Hypoxia Signature, which offers the potential of identifying patients who would respond to cancer drugs called anti-angiogenesis therapies. This technology could be developed into a companion diagnostic that would help doctors determine whether to use anti-angiogenesis drugs such as Avastin.