isoplexisBranford, Connecticut–based Isoplexis (NSDQ:ISO) made its public market debut today with an initial public offering of 8,333,000 shares of common stock initially priced at $15 per share.

ISO shares ended up selling for $11.52 apiece at the end of trading, equating to $96 million (less fees and expenses associated with the IPO). That was 23% less than its $15-per-share target, which would have raised $125 million before fees and expenses.

“We can’t control how the stock trades every day, but we can control being good at our jobs and producing revenue and growing the company,” Isoplexis co-founder and CEO Sean MacKay told Drug Discovery Trends.

The company plans to use proceeds from the IPO to invest in commercial expansion and hiring new staff.

“We grew about 103% in the first half of this year,” MacKay said. “To continue to move worldwide with our product, we need to continue to invest in the commercial teams.”

Isoplexis also plans to expand its operations and its product focus.

“We see big opportunities in proteomics as well as this new sequencing and proteomic single-cell platform,” MacKay said.

Before the IPO, the company had raised $205.5 million, according to Crunchbase.

Founded in 2013, Isoplexis got involved in single-cell proteomics when cancer immunotherapy was relatively early.

“I think we’re still at the very beginning of the cycle,” MacKay said. “Everything that we can see proves that all oncology patients or many infectious disease patients can have long-term curative medicines that sort of respond directly to their specific patient profiles,” he added. “We’re not there yet, but we’re getting there.”

MacKay said the company has made progress in getting support from key opinion leaders, academics and customers at large pharmaceutical companies by revenue and many comprehensive cancer centers in the U.S.

Its customers are using its technology for various applications, including developing immunotherapies, cell therapies, gene therapies, vaccines and regenerative medicines.

“There’s a tremendous amount to do in terms of working on improving new therapeutic platforms,” MacKay said. “There’s a long journey to go before everyone has access to highly curative medicines for oncology, infectious disease and beyond, but we’re well on our way, and we’re excited about it.”