A Texas cancer diagnostics company formally opened a 20,000-square-foot laboratory on the North Shore Wednesday, with plans to double its workforce to 70 people by year’s end.
Friendswood-based Castle Biosciences Inc., which uses spatial biology and artificial intelligence driven-image analysis, plans to use the Nova Place lab for analyzing tissue samples.
The company, which was founded in 2008, employs a total of 543 people, including 31 in Pittsburgh.
In 2021, Castle acquired Harmar-based Cernostics Inc., which developed TissueCypher, a diagnostic tool to predict high grade dysplasia or esophageal cancer in patients with Barrett’s esophagus. Cernostics employed about 12 people; they became Castle employees after the acquisition.
Cernostics, once a Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse portfolio company, became a wholly owned subsidiary of Castle for $30 million paid to Cernostics security holders plus another $50 million in cash or stock for achieving certain milestones in 2022.
The acquisition of Cernostics made Pittsburgh a natural choice for Castle lab, President and CEO Derek Maetzold said. A second lab for tissue analysis will create needed testing redundancy within the company.
“We wanted to make Pittsburgh home,” said Mr. Maetzold, who is also company founder.
Castle, which focuses on diagnostic tests for skin cancer and has not yet turned a profit, has raised about $354.3 million in investments and is on track to become cash positive in 2025, Mr. Maetzold said.
For the year ending Dec. 31, publicly held Castle reported an operating loss of $72 million, up from a $40 million loss for the previous year, on operating revenue of $137 million. Net revenue for the 12 months was up $43 million or 46% from the same period in 2022, according to company financials.
Kris B. Mamula: kmamula@post-gazette.com
First Published: May 23, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: May 23, 2023, 2:51 p.m.