Senticell, a Philadelphia-based biotechnology company, has closed an oversubscribed seed financing round approaching $7 million to advance an RBC-based liquid biopsy platform licensed from the University of Pennsylvania. The round was led by The Venture City, Capital Factory, Scalpel Ventures and Evoce Capital, and included participation from a group of high-net-worth individuals. Proceeds will be used to run multiple clinical studies in oncology.
RBC-based liquid biopsy platform and supporting data
Senticell’s platform is built on more than a decade of published, peer-reviewed research showing that red blood cells actively bind and retain disease-associated DNA and RNA. The technology is exclusively licensed to Senticell from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Nilam Mangalmurti, who first identified these insights, is Senticell’s scientific co‑founder and serves as the company’s Chief Scientific Advisor.
The company highlights three biological features that support the approach: red blood cells are the body’s most abundant cell type (an estimated 30 trillion in circulation), they remain in circulation for roughly 120 days, and they come into contact with every tissue in the body. Senticell says these properties make RBCs a largely untapped molecular diagnostic reservoir that can lower limits of detection compared with plasma-based liquid biopsies and potentially identify clinically actionable signals in early-stage disease and low-shedding tumors.
“Decades of research suggested that red blood cells were doing far more than carrying oxygen. Our discovery that red blood cells bind nucleic acids revealed that they could provide a distinct window into disease—one that may capture information not readily accessible through conventional liquid biopsies. Importantly, we recognized that this biology could be harnessed for diagnostics. That insight led to the development of a new technology to isolate and rapidly analyze RBC-associated nucleic acids, including oncogenic driver mutations. We are now building on this discovery to develop a reliable diagnostic platform with the potential to transform cancer detection and improve patient lives,” said Dr. Mangalmurti.
Clinical studies and timeline
Central to Senticell’s data package are two prospective clinical studies underway at Penn Medicine, together enrolling approximately 300 patients to compare Senticell’s red-cell signal against plasma-based tests and to determine tissue concordance. Senticell is actively enrolling 200 lung and pancreatic cancer patients at UPenn to evaluate pre-surgical driver detection and recurrence monitoring, with completion expected in Q1 2027. The company is also providing RBC-based in‑vitro analytical support for a clinical study that includes head & neck and cervical cancer cohorts (~100 patients across UPenn and UPenn‑Botswana) evaluating minimal residual disease (MRD) and post-treatment monitoring, with results expected in Q4 2026.
In addition to oncology work, Senticell reports foundational research under a Sponsored Research Agreement with Penn Medicine to establish rapid, culture-independent pathogen detection for sepsis and pneumonia on the RBC platform. The company expects to formalize that application into a dedicated clinical study following completion of its oncology proof-of-concept work.
Advisory board and leadership
Senticell has assembled a scientific advisory board that includes Steven Albelda, MD (Penn Medicine, Emeritus), Chris Hunter, PhD (Penn Vet), and David Roth, MD, PhD (Penn Medicine, Emeritus). “I have closely followed Dr. Mangalmurti’s research at Penn. Senticell will translate these basic science findings into clinically applicable RBC-platforms that will be more sensitive, more rapid, and less expensive than currently available testing approaches in diseases like cancer and infections,” said Dr. Albelda.
“This financing reflects strong investor conviction in the underlying science and in our team’s ability to translate that science into a scalable diagnostic platform,” said Neha Shah, Co‑founder and Chief Executive Officer of Senticell. “Being oversubscribed and welcoming a group of investors who understand the clinical need firsthand, gives us both the capital and the opportunity to rapidly advance what will be a major breakthrough in cancer diagnosis and ultimately treatment decision-making.”
About Senticell
Senticell is developing a new class of liquid biopsy diagnostics based on red blood cell (RBC)-bound nucleic acids. Founded on research pioneered at Penn Medicine, the company says its platform is designed to unlock disease signals that plasma-based liquid biopsy often cannot detect, with initial applications in oncology and infectious diseases. Senticell holds an exclusive, worldwide license to its foundational RBC platform from the University of Pennsylvania and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.senticell.bio.
