Woodinville-based biotech Nortis has raised $6 million, according to a filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The filing notes the company is looking to raise an additional $3.5 million. The money was equity funding, according to the filing.
Although Nortis didn't immediately respond to a request for more information, the company's website says Nortis is focused on "organ-on-chip" technology. The Wyss Institute at Harvard University defines organ-on-chips as small devices "lined with living human cells for drug development, disease modeling and personalized medicine."
"Nortis’ vision is no less than to develop the 21st century gold standard for the preclinical testing of drugs and vaccines. We expect our technology will drastically accelerate the discovery and introduction of new therapies and alleviate the use of animals," the company says on its website.
The website lists open roles in human resources and biomanufacturing, among others.
Nortis was founded in 2012, according to the company's LinkedIn page. The company says its chips come with living human tissues, eliminating the need for clients to create their own tissues. On Nortis' website, the company lists AstraZeneca, Genentech and the University of Washington as clients.
The filing lists Thomas Neumann as Nortis' CEO. Neumann spent more than seven years as vice president of medical sciences at the Phoenix-based lung cancer company VisionGate earlier in his career, according to his LinkedIn page.
Susan Preston is listed as a director of the company in the filing. Preston is managing member of the Seattle-based venture capital fund SeaChange Fund, which focuses on early-stage startups in the Pacific Northwest.
Nortis isn't the only local biotech to raise money recently. Seattle-based SEngine Precision Medicine raised $10 million recently. SEngine, which is developing ways to test the effectiveness of cancer treatments outside of patients' bodies on live tumor cells derived from patients, is planning to move to Bothell in the fall.
