The Indian cancer genetic research company MedGenome says it has taken $4 million in new funding to further develop and market its genetic sequencing research on cancer victims.

MedGenome licenses a bioinformatics database called OncoMD, which containsmore than 1.2 million cancer-related genetic mutations.

The funding round was led by Papillon Capitals Kartik Kumaramangalam and Emerge Ventures Mahesh Pratapneni and includes several other individual investors all data science executives.

MedGenome is already the leader in the Indian genomics market, says MedGenome CEO Sam Santhosh in a statement today. The new resources from this investment round will enable us to expand our research and make our tools more widely available to clinicians and hospitals developing personalized treatment strategies for cancer patients around the world.

Health informatics businesses dont lend themselves to 30-second elevator pitches very well. Heres the short version, as explained to VentureBeatby MedGenome investor Dmitri Mehlhorn.

In twins, who have very similar genes, its easy for genetic researchers to understand the small genetic differences that may have led to cancer in one twin but not in the other. Oncologists might be able to recognize that same genetic mutationin other people as a possible warning sign for cancer. But there are only so many twins to study.

So genetic researchers look for whole groups of people whose genetic make-ups are very similar. For instance, the populations of Utah and Iceland are genetically very homogeneous, and both of those groups have yielded a wealth of genetic lessons for medicine.

India, it turns out, has hundreds of genetically homogeneous castes, tribes, and ethnic groups. Its like having a hundred Icelands in one country, Mehlhorn told me.

MedGenomes database of genetic mutations can help physicians and hospitals pinpoint patients mutation hotspots, identify prevalent cancer types, flag potential sensitivity to therapies, and link mutations to open clinical trials, as MedGenome puts it.

Mehlhorn saysMedGenome is already profitable but needs the newfunding to bring its cancer data to more hospitals and research institutions.

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Data scientists back MedGenomes database of genetic mutations for cancer research with $4M

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