Most cancer diagnostics look for a molecular signature, a genetic mutation or a protein marker. Boston-based startup Cellens is trying something different: measuring the physical stiffness of cells to detect cancer, and it just raised $6.5 million in a Series Seed round led by SOSV to push the approach toward clinical use, according to the company and Today’s Clinical Lab.
How the “mechanobiology” platform works
Cellens’ platform, called BioFeel, uses atomic force microscopy, an instrument that “feels” the physical stiffness of individual cells, to identify a cancer’s biophysical fingerprint rather than relying on its molecular or genetic markers. Machine learning algorithms trained on millions of cell interactions then interpret those biophysical measurements to distinguish cancerous from non-cancerous cells, an approach the company positions as complementary to, rather than a replacement for, molecular diagnostics.
Who backed the round
The $6.5 million raise was led by SOSV, with participation from Labcorp Venture Fund, American Cancer Society BrightEdge, KOLON, Blackwood Healthcare Breakthroughs, Tufts University, Cancer Fund, and TiE Boston Angels, among other strategic investors, according to MDDI and the company’s own announcement. Labcorp’s involvement is notable given the diagnostics giant’s existing footprint in molecular cancer testing, suggesting an interest in a technology that could eventually complement or challenge its own testing portfolio.
Early clinical results
In a prospective, case-controlled study analyzing nearly 100 patient urine samples, Cellens’ test identified every recurrence case in the study group, according to the company, notably outperforming traditional FDA-cleared molecular assays for bladder cancer recurrence, which the company says often miss low-grade disease and typically achieve only 60% to 65% sensitivity. Bladder cancer has one of the highest recurrence rates of any cancer, requiring patients to undergo repeated invasive cystoscopies for years after initial treatment, which is part of why a more sensitive, non-invasive urine-based test is seen as clinically valuable.
What the funding will build
Cellens plans to use the new capital to build out a Boston-based CLIA-certified clinical laboratory, the regulatory designation required to process patient samples and report results for clinical decision-making in the United States, rather than continuing to operate purely as a research-stage company. That lab buildout marks the transition point between a promising academic-style pilot study and an actual commercially available diagnostic test.
Reasons for caution
A nearly 100-sample case-controlled study, while encouraging, is small relative to the large, multi-site validation studies the FDA typically expects before clearing a diagnostic test for routine clinical use, and mechanobiology-based diagnostics remain a far less established category than molecular or genomic testing, meaning regulators, insurers and physicians may take longer to trust results from an unfamiliar underlying technology. The company has not yet disclosed a specific FDA clearance timeline.
Why Labcorp’s involvement stands out
Among the round’s backers, the participation of Labcorp Venture Fund is particularly notable because Labcorp is one of the largest operators of exactly the kind of FDA-cleared molecular diagnostic assays that Cellens’ early data claims to outperform. Strategic investment from an established diagnostics incumbent into a smaller company challenging part of its own existing test menu is not unusual in laboratory medicine, where large reference labs often prefer to invest early in, and eventually acquire or license, promising new technologies rather than compete against them once they mature. Cellens’ approach also sits within a broader wave of venture-backed cancer-diagnostics startups; Boston-based mechanobiology and biophysical-sensing companies have drawn increasing attention from cancer-focused investors including the American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge venture arm, which also backed this round, as the diagnostics field looks beyond genomics and proteomics for new categories of cancer signal.
What’s next
Cellens’ near-term milestone is standing up its CLIA lab to begin processing real patient samples at scale, which would let the company start generating the larger real-world dataset needed to pursue FDA clearance and payer reimbursement. If BioFeel’s early sensitivity advantage holds up in larger trials, it could offer bladder cancer patients a way to reduce the frequency of invasive surveillance cystoscopies, one of the more burdensome aspects of long-term cancer monitoring.
The scale of the problem BioFeel is targeting
Bladder cancer is diagnosed in roughly 84,500 new patients in the United States each year, according to American Cancer Society projections for 2026, and it ranks among the most expensive cancers to manage over a patient’s lifetime precisely because of the repeated invasive cystoscopies required to monitor for recurrence long after initial treatment. Atomic force microscopy itself is not a new invention, it was originally developed in the 1980s as a physics and materials-science tool for imaging surfaces at near-atomic resolution, and its adaptation to measuring the mechanical stiffness of living cells is a comparatively recent application that Cellens and a handful of academic labs have been pushing toward clinical diagnostics over the past several years.
