Company Announcements

Berkeley Lights, which is developing nanofluidic biosystems for single-cell analysis, announced in September 2015 that it raised $90 million in funding to date in partnership with Sequoia and Walden Riverwood Ventures.

Berkeley Lights announced early access agreements with the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai and the University of California, San Francisco’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. The company also announced the first shipment of an instrument incorporating its technology for antibody discovery to Amgen.

IntelliCyt completed $7.4 million in new financing in October 2015, consisting of $5.4 million in venture financing, led by Arboretum Ventures, and an additional $2 million debt facility, led by Oxford Finance.

In January, IntelliCyt reported 68% growth in 2015 revenues, with over 300 systems in service in 18 countries.

In February, IntelliCyt announced a collaboration with the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) at the University of Helsinki for analyzing the effects of investigational oncology compounds on patient cells. FIMM has been a customer since 2014.

In November 2015, Ovizio Imaging Systems, which develops cell counting solutions based on quantitative microscopy, secured a $9.1 million funding round, co-led by New Science Ventures and a private investor.

Seahorse Bioscience, an Agilent Technologies company, announced in January its 500th citation in cancer research.

In February, NanoCellect Biomedical, which is developing a cell sorting technology, closed a $1.8 million Series A financial round, led by FusionX Ventures.

Bio-Rad Laboratories announced the acquisition of a high-performance analytical flow cytometer platform from Propel Labs, which it expects to launch later this year. According to an SEC filing, the aggregate consideration consists of $10 million in cash and up to $20 million based on the completion of certain technical milestones.

Product Introductions

In January, ViroCyt launched ViroTag AAV2-3 for real-time quantification of Adeno-associated virus serotypes 2 and 3. It is for use with its Viro Counter 3100.

Xcell Biosciences announced it will release in March its Avatar system for culturing and propogating tumor samples, CTCs from liquid biopsies, stem cells and primary samples. It allows the control of key physiological conditions.

In February, BD introduced the FACSymphony system, a cell analyzer for the simultaneous analysis of up to 50 different characteristics of a single cell. Detection rates are up to 40,000 events/second. It is the result of an ongoing collaboration with the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.