“There has never been a more dramatic demonstration of the importance of rapid and accurate diagnostics to combat infectious disease threats than the current COVID-19 pandemic.”
Day Zero Diagnostics, the four-year-old startup incubated at Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab, received $6.2 million in non-dilutive funding from Boston-based Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X).
The startup is developing a sequencing-based and machine learning-powered diagnostic system that identifies, within hours, both the species and the antibiotic resistance profile of a bacterial pathogen. The system’s design is to allow for the simultaneous testing of a broad range of bacterial species and their antibiotic susceptibility. In May 2019, Day Zero Diagnostics was one of 27 companies to receive funding through the MLSC’s Tax Incentive program. The MLSC Board of Directors approved $20 million to create more than 1,200 new jobs across the Commonwealth. The tax incentive awards supported life sciences job growth in 19 different Massachusetts communities, the majority of which are located in or expanding outside of Boston and Cambridge.
The company is also an active participant in the MLSC Internship Challenge. Since the program’s inception in 2009, the Internship Challenge has supported more than 4,300 internships with nearly 800 companies for students from 230 different academic institutions.