Proving that reproduction remains a fecund market for investment, Israeli startup Fairtility Ltd. closed a $15 million series A funding round. Led by Boston-based Gurnet Point Capital with support from Nacre Capital and others, the round boosted Fairtility’s funding to date up to $18.5 million.

Pharma and tech companies including Amazon Inc., Astrazeneca plc, Pfizer Inc., Merck & Co. Inc. and Teva Inc. are partnering with an innovation lab based in Israel to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) driven antibody discovery. Rehovot, Israel-based Aion Labs recently launched a venture hub for innovators and scientists from around the world.

In the post COVID world, digital transformation is at the forefront of every company’s agenda, but which innovations can fuel the next era of health care? At the ongoing Biomed Israel conference in Tel Aviv, Anat Naschitz founder and CEO of 9xchange and co-founder of Orbimed Israel, lead a digital health track exploring the technologies aiming to reconstruct the future of health care.

Ten years from now, what medical technologies will generate the most economic value and where is the industry heading? At the annual Biomed Israel conference, held in Tel Aviv, health care, pharmaceutical and technology advisor, and board director Sandra Morgan examined research from consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and beyond on the biggest innovation trends in the sector.

At the annual Biomed Israel conference, held in Tel Aviv, Eyal Lifschitz, co-founder of Israeli venture capital fund Peregrine Venture, urged entrepreneurs to adapt their business strategy or face a long, difficult road to exit. With strategic companies increasingly favoring companies later in development, Lifschitz advised innovators to expand their vision beyond the traditional buyers.

With cancer treatment success rates rising, the field of precision oncology is poised to grow as clinicians aim to move treatment from a one size fits all approach to personalized treatment regimens. Israeli startups including Oncohost Ltd., Nucleai Ltd. and Gina Life Diagnostics Ltd. are part of an emerging wave of companies utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques to personalize the future of cancer diagnostics.

Newstem Ltd. filed a presubmission to the U.S. FDA for a de novo request and an in vitro diagnostic device with the EMA for its Newstem software diagnostic device (NSDD). The bioinformatics-based platform is a personalized diagnostic to inform oncologists about the presence of mutations in tumors and predict a patients’ resistance to chemotherapy treatments. The technology utilizes specialized stem cells (haploid cells) that carry just one set of chromosomes.

Pangea Biomed Ltd. picked up $7 million in seed financing to fast-track development of its multicancer, multitherapy response predictor Enlight. The platform combines machine learning and RNA sequencing to map tumor molecular signatures and predict how different cancer types will respond to oncology drugs. Pangea said instead of using transcriptomic data, it is utilizing ‘unsupervised’ AI techniques that harvest information about gene interactions.

Cvaid Medical Ltd. secured $4 million in a series A financing to further develop its mobile stroke diagnostic, monitoring and treatment platform. The Israeli Rad Biomed investment fund led the round with participation from Philips Ventures and Sanara Capital. As part of the financing, a representative from Philips will join the board. The smartphone-based system, Cvaid uses artificial intelligence to process and analyze video and voice recordings to identify and assess the severity of patients experiencing stroke, also called cerebrovascular accidents.