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Years after Theranos, Vital Biosciences wants to prove that Silicon Valley can actually change blood testing.
This idea will bring a cold sweat to any investor familiar with Theranos Inc. This company also sought to conduct a large number of tests on a small amount of blood. It didn't work, and founder Elizabeth Holmes is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for fraud after the company's valuation dropped to zero from $9 billion.
Sam Altman, 8VC and Laboratories Corp have already invested in the startup. of America Holdings for a total of $48 million. That's still a long way from the $900 million raised by Theranos, but Vital CEO Vasu Nadella says it's enough to complete the technology development and start clinical research.
Vital Biosciences plans to hold its first official demonstration on Monday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry in Anaheim, California.
The diagnostic machine called VitalOne, according to the company, will be able to simultaneously conduct three main types of tests - hematological, clinical chemical and immunological. Tests check for blood disorders such as anemia; underlying metabolic disorders such as high cholesterol or jaundice and the presence of substances such as vitamins or insulin.
The device is intended for use in doctors' offices. This is in contrast to the typical scheme where a patient can go to a third party clinic for a blood test, and that clinic in turn sends blood for testing. These results usually take days, sometimes weeks.
