Leroy Hood

Dr. Leroy Hood, the founder of the Institute for Systems Biology and a pioneer in the field of molecular biology, appears to accumulating funds for a new startup. Hood -- the inventor of the DNA gene sequencer and other technologies -- is listed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing as a director of a Seattle company called Integrative Diagnostics that recently raised $7.5 million of a $30 million round.

The money is to be used for "general working capital," according to the filing.

The company appears to be the same as an entity called Integrated Diagnostics, which received some attention last year from Xconomy and Technology Review for a new way to quickly test small amounts of blood for cancer and other diseases.

Last year, Hood told Xconomy that the company " is going to transform medicine, I guarantee you." At the time, he noted that the financing would close in a few months. But it was keeping a low profile.

Almost a year has passed since that interview, and the company still isn't saying much. A spokesman for the Institute for Systems Biology -- where the SEC filing says the company is based -- referred questions to a company spokesman who declined to comment.

The filing doesn't indicate investors.

Hood certainly is worth watching, since the founder of the University of Washington's Department of Molecular Biology has played a role in jumpstarting more than a dozen life science companies. Those include Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Systemix, Darwin and Rosetta.

Other directors of the company include James Heath -- a professor of chemistry at CalTech -- and David Galas --senior vice president of strategic partnerships at the ISB. Paul Kearney is listed as a director and executive officer.

Here's what the MIT Technology Review had to say about the company's blood testing technologies in its story last year.

Such rapid and cheap tests requiring only a drop of blood should allow doctors to monitor more proteins more frequently, enabling earlier detection of diseases like cancer and better preventive care for the elderly. The new diagnostics should also be more accurate, says Heath. Traditional blood samples sit for hours or even days before the measurement process is completed, allowing plenty of time for them to degrade.