Zepto lands up to $8.9M NIAID contract for infectious-disease liquid biopsy
What's the deal? Zepto Life TechnologyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has been awarded a contract worth up to $8.9 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to advance its plasma cell-free DNA liquid biopsy platform for invasive fungal infections. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of HealthDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, made an initial award of $1.9 million, with the rest available if all contract options are exercised.
What's the endgame? The funds back Zepto's FungiFlex programme from engineering and manufacturing through a planned multi-centre clinical study and a future FDA submission. The St. Paul, Minnesota company's Zepto MDx platform detects pathogen-derived cell-free DNA directly from plasma, identifying infectious pathogens from a standard blood draw without culture or invasive tissue collection.
Why now? Invasive fungal infections hit vulnerable patients hardest — people with cancer, transplant recipients, and others with weakened immune systems. Current diagnosis is often slow or requires invasive procedures, and delays drive high mortality.
What led up to it? Zepto's FungiFlex Mold Panel has already received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation and is available for physician ordering through the company's CLIA-certified reference laboratory. The new contract aims to move that capability into hospital and clinical microbiology labs.
"Today, FungiFlex is available through our CLIA reference laboratory, but we've always been building toward something bigger," said Hannah Zhang, chief executive officer of Zepto Life Technology. She said the award helps the company get "clinicians actionable answers closer to the moment they first suspect an infection."
The signal: At up to $8.9 million, the award ranks in roughly the 94th percentile among US health grant rounds, a sign of federal appetite for faster infectious-disease diagnostics. It also marks a bet on liquid biopsy — long associated with cancer — as a tool for pathogen detection.
Read more: GenomeWeb
Image credit: Zepto Life Technology
