GRAIL, Inc., a life sciences company whose mission is to detect cancer early when it can be cured, announced on May 31 that it has entered into a definitive agreement to combine with Cirina, Ltd., another company focused on early detection of cancer.
The work of Hong Kong-based Cirina has been part of a growing body of scientific evidence that cancer can be diagnosed by analyzing plasma nucleic components in the bloodstream. Cirina co-founder Dr. Dennis Lo has received numerous awards for his discoveries and contributions to the field of non-invasive blood-based diagnoses.
Dr. Lo is being named a scientific co-founder of the combined entity and will join GRAIL’s scientific advisory board. Min Cui, Cirina founding partner and managing director of Decheng Capital, will join GRAIL’s Board of Directors as an observer. Cirina’s chief executive officer, Maneesh Jain, will join the GRAIL team as well.
GRAIL expects the business combination to expand GRAIL’s impact globally because it will be able to develop and commercialize products in both the Asian and Western markets. As an operating GRAIL subsidiary, Cirina will maintain and continue to develop its research collaborations with the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
GRAIL, a McKesson Ventures portfolio company, uses the power of high-intensity sequencing, population-scale clinical trials, and state of the art computer science and data science to enhance the scientific understanding of cancer biology and develop blood tests for early-stage cancer detection.
Cirina is developing blood-plasma tests to detect deadly diseases at their earliest stages when curative treatments are more viable.
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