BioMérieux Buys Bioinformatics Firm
Applied Maths provides the BioNumerics platform, which can combine genomics, metabolomics and proteomic data for microbiological analysis, and GelCompar, which analyzes 1-D gels. BioNumerics integrates data from various analysis techniques, including NGS, microarray and MALDI-TOF MS. Industrial microbiology applications include tracing food chain–based pathogen outbreaks. BioMérieux recently released, in partnership with Illumina, the EpiSeq NGS service for hospital-acquired infections.
Marcy l’Etoile, France 1/5/16—IVD firm bioMérieux has acquired Applied Maths, a provider of software solutions for databasing, analysis and interpretation of complex biological data, specializing in microbiology. Financial terms were not disclosed. Based in Belgium, Applied Maths has 25 employees and two thousand customers. “Bioinformatics unleashes the potential of big data management and may have an impact on IVD by progressively breaking down barriers between service offerings from laboratories and diagnostic solutions commercialized by IVD companies,” stated bioMérieux Chairman Jean-Luc Belingard. BioMérieux stated that the acquisition will initially strengthen its NGS-based EpiSeq service offering for epidemiological and healthcare-associated infection monitoring. Longer-term synergies include applications in clinical and industrial microbiology.
