Blaze Bioscience has raised $9 million in fresh funding from individual investors, money that the Seattle spinoff of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center will use to continue development on an innovative product dubbed Tumor Paint. Total funding in the company, founded by Fred Hutch researcher Jim Olson, now stands at $19 million.
The new cash will support clinical development of BLZ-100 — the company’s first product that’s designed to help surgeons better pinpoint cancer cells in real time.
“We appreciate our investors ongoing support as we continue to meet our goals and advance our BLZ-100 program. Blaze has executed on its aggressive business plan to take Tumor Paint technology from academic lab to the clinic in just over 2 years,” said CEO and co-founder Heather Franklin. “BLZ-100 is the first of what we hope will be a robust pipeline of Optide-based product candidates.”
The company says the Tumor Paint technology could be used to treat multiple forms of cancer.
Here is Olson talking about Tumor Paint at a recent TedX Seattle event.
