New Harvard spin-out blood pathogen-extracting device developer Opsonix said it raised $8 million in its Series A round upon launching, led by Baxter (NYSE:BAX) Ventures.

Opsonix is developing a device to remove infectious pathogens and toxins from circulating blood, to treat blood-borne infectious diseases,including sepsis, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company said.

“Opsonix’s pathogen-extracting therapy provides a novel therapeutic solution leveraging the broad binding activities of a natural human protein that may rapidly remove sepsis-causing pathogens – and the toxins they release – from a patient’s blood. With our FcMBL-based pathogen-extracting therapy, treatment of blood-borne infectious disease can be initiated earlier in the course of infection, when it is most needed, without having to wait to identify the disease-causing pathogen. With the strong support of our investors and a compelling body of evidence developed by our scientific founders, Opsonix will move forward expeditiously with preclinical studies to advance our pathogen-extracting therapy,” Opsonix CEO Eric Devroe said in a press release.

The core of Opsonix’ device is based on proprietary pathogen-capturing proteins.  When attached to the membrane of a dialyzer-type device, can remove a broad range of bacteria, fungi, parasites, viruses and toxins responsible for sepsis, including antibiotic-resistant organisms, the company said.

In studies published by Opsonix’ founders at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, pathogen-extracting therapies like those used by the company’s device were shown to work well in synergy with conventional antibiotics, the company said.

In addition to Baxter, the round was joined by private investor Hansjörg Wyss.