TAI Diagnostics raises $10 million for transplant test

TAI Diagnostics, a Wauwatosa startup with a blood test for heart transplant rejection, raised another $10 million in outside funding.

It’s bound to be one of the largest capital infusions in the state in 2018.

The aim for TAI Diagnostics’ blood test is to be used instead of tissue biopsies during routine screenings for rejection after an organ transplant. Frank Langley, CEO of TAI Diagnostics, said the blood test avoids an invasive procedure and its cost is “less than half ” the cost of a tissue biopsy.

The technology on which TAI Diagnostics test relies was invented by the company’s founders, Michael Mitchell, a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, and Aoy Tomita-Mitchell, a professor and researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

The plan is to launch its product for patients who have had heart transplants early this year. The money from the most recent fundraising is going toward setting up the company’s commercial operations and adding scientific and lab staff.

Last year, TAI Diagnostics raised nearly $2 million. Since its inception in 2015 as an offshoot from the Medical College of Wisconsin, the company has raised more than $21 million.

TAI Diagnostics also announced a partnership and investment from United Therapeutics Corp., a public biotechnology company that works with a variety of technologies such as xenotransplantation, organ manufacturing, regenerative medicine and exvivo lung preservation.

“It’s pretty impressive that we’ve been able to raise that amount of money,” Langley said. “It’s further validation of the company and the opportunity when a very large public company is willing to be an investor and a collaborator.”