Financing led by The Venture City, Capital Factory, Scalpel Ventures and Evoce Capital; funds will be utilized to run multiple clinical studies in oncology to advance a novel and revolutionary red blood cell based liquid biopsy platform invented at the University of Pennsylvania.
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 1, 2026 — Senticell, Inc. (“Senticell” or the “Company”), a biotechnology company pioneering a new class of liquid biopsy built on red blood cell (RBC)-bound nucleic acids, today announced the closing of an oversubscribed seed financing round approaching $7 million. The round drew participation from The Venture City, Capital Factory, Scalpel Ventures, Evoce Capital, as well as a group of high-net-worth individuals.
“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.”
Senticell’s liquid biopsy platform is exclusively licensed to the company from the University of Pennsylvania and is built on more than a decade of published, peer-reviewed research demonstrating red blood cells actively bind and retain disease-associated DNA and RNA. These unique insights were first identified by Dr. Nilam Mangalmurti, who is the scientific co-founder of Senticell and acts as the company’s Chief Scientific Advisor.
Since red blood cells are the body’s most abundant cell type (an estimated 30 trillion in circulation), remain in circulation for roughly 120 days, and come into contact with every tissue in the body, they represent a largely untapped molecular diagnostic reservoir that can significantly lower limits of detection of liquid biopsy. Senticell is rapidly advancing a proprietary RBC liquid biopsy platform to identify clinically actionable disease signals in oncology that today’s plasma-based tests miss and enable more consistent application in early-stage disease and low-shedding tumor states.
“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.
Central to Senticell’s data package are two prospective clinical studies currently underway at Penn Medicine, together enrolling approximately 300 patients and comparing Senticell’s red-cell signal against plasma-based tests and determining tissue concordance. The company is actively enrolling 200 lung and pancreatic cancer patients at UPenn, evaluating pre-surgical driver detection and recurrence monitoring, with completion in Q1 2027. In addition, Senticell is providing RBC-based in-vitro analytical support for a clinical study (head & neck and cervical cancer cohorts, ~100 patients across UPenn and UPenn-Botswana) evaluating MRD and post-treatment monitoring, with results expected in Q4 2026. Finally, foundational work under Senticell’s Sponsored Research Agreement with Penn Medicine is establishing rapid, culture-independent pathogen detection for sepsis and pneumonia on the RBC platform; the Company expects to formalize this into a dedicated clinical study following the completion of its oncology proof-of-concept work.
With its transformative technology based on decades of research, Senticell has attracted a world-class scientific advisory board including:
- Steven Albelda, MD (Penn Medicine, Emeritus), a tumor immunologist and co-founder of Capstan Therapeutics (acquired by AbbVie)
- Chris Hunter, PhD (Penn Vet), a cytokine biologist and founder of Surface Oncology (acquired by Coherus)
- David Roth, MD, PhD (Penn Medicine, Emeritus), founder of the Center for Personalized Diagnostics at UPenn.
“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. Steven Albelda, Scientific Advisor to Senticell.
Looking ahead, Senticell views this seed round as the foundation for a much broader platform. “Red blood cells have been hiding in plain sight as a diagnostic tool for decades, and we are just beginning to unlock what they can tell us,” said Shah. “Our vision is to build the definitive RBC-based diagnostics platform, one that starts in oncology but ultimately extends across disease areas where earlier, more sensitive detection can change how patients are treated. This is the first step toward making that a reality.”
About Senticell
Senticell is a biotechnology company developing a new class of liquid biopsy diagnostics based on red blood cell (RBC)-bound nucleic acids. Founded on research pioneered at Penn Medicine, Senticell’s 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.
SOURCE Senticell
