Element Genomics, a recently launched Durham-based biosciences company, has raised $4.9 million by selling debt and securities, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
John Oxaal, a Duke entrepreneur-in-residence, is its founding CEO.
The startup is developing a high-throughput platform for understanding gene regulatory elements in order to identify new drug targets for common diseases, according to the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s corporate database.
Element Genomics Inc. filed a Form D on Nov. 2 to raise a total of $5.1 million. The company said the proceeds will go toward salaries, compensation and benefits.
Element Genomics launched in 2015.
Oxaal, the president and CEO of Element Genomics, received his undergraduate degree from Duke University, working with biomedical engineering professor Olaf von Ramm. Oxaal received his business degree from the University of Chicago.
Oxaal joined Sevin Rosen funds, where he remains today, in 1999 and is Duke’s biomedical engineering entrepreneur-in-residence. He focuses his work in areas such as imaging, computing, photonics, RF communications and semiconductors.
“This is an exciting time to be in the technology business,” Oxaal says in his bio at Sevin Roseb. “The pace of change is increasing, opening up new possibilities.”
Oxaal co-founded and was CEO of Volumetrics Medical Imaging and was on the founding team of the Digital Signal Processing Division of Analog Devices, according to that bio. He also holds several patents in real-time volumetric ultrasound imaging.
In addition to serving as the founding CEO of Element Genomics, John is on the Board of Directors of Ethertronics, Luxtera, Metabolon, and Airwayz.
Oxaal believes that the understanding of the genome, advances in biochemistry and data applications, combined with engineering, are fields that need to be explored.
Note: North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism, contributed to this report.
