Araceli raises $4.5M for drug discovery tools aimed at reducing animal testing

Araceli Biosciences, a Portland-area biotech company, has secured $4.5 million in funding to help commercialize technology and develop new products that support using human cells instead of animal studies to test new drugs.

The Tigard, Ore., startup offers instruments and software for creating images of cells and automating analysis. Its technologies fall under the umbrella term “New Approach Methodologies,” which includes human-tissue models, computer simulations and AI-based approaches that reduce or avoid experimentation on animals such as mice, rats and monkeys.

Supporters of the methods, known as NAMs, argue that they can yield better outcomes because animals are not a perfect substitute for humans and can generate irrelevant findings. That can lead to costly, time-intensive development of drugs that fail to perform in people. Advocates also promote the alternatives as more humane.

The National Institutes of Health announced $84 million in September to build infrastructure for NAMs research at 10 sites nationwide.

“[T]he efforts signal a significant investment into human-based technologies as the future of preclinical science, aiming to make research faster, more predictive, and more directly relevant to human health,” the NIH said in a release.

Araceli said it has raised a total of $22.7 million from investors. The new round was led by William Cortelyou and included Fluke Venture Partners, according to PitchBook. The company disclosed Thursday that businessman and animal welfare advocate Jeff Swickard was also an investor.