Company Announcements

Genomics, a developer of an analytical platform for genomic-sequence data analysis and interpretation, completed a £10.3 million ($16.1 million) fundraising round in November 2014.

In December 2014, Tute Genomics, a provider of a cloud-based genome analytics platform, raised $2.3 million in Series A1 funding.

Kapa Biosystems expanded its partnership with Roche NimbleGen to include new, optimized RNA sample preparation methods for targeted RNA next-generation sequencing (NGS) applications. The custom-manufactured KAPA Stranded RNA-Seq Kits will be distributed with Roche’s SeqCap RNA Target Enrichment System.

In December 2014, Pacific Biosciences named Kathy Ordoñez, senior vice president of Quest Diagnostics, to its Board.

ZS Genetics, which is developing an electron microscopy–based sequencing technology, named John A. McCarthy, Jr. as CEO. Previously, he was CEO of CryoXtract Instruments.

The Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow partnered with Illumina in January in the £15 million ($23 million) Scottish Genomes Partnership, which will install 15 HiSeq X sequencing instruments.

Illumina announced a strategic alliance with Lockheed Martin to develop scalable and affordable genomic solutions to provide personalized health care for national populations, utilizing Lockheed’s expertise in large-scale information systems and integration.

10X Genomics raised $55.5 million in Series B financing. The firm is developing a platform that upgrades existing short-read sequencers to deliver long-range contextual information.

Nabsys and Ariana Pharmaceuticals are collaborating to identify sets of DNA structural variants linked to prostate and breast cancers and to the clinical outcome of patients with these diseases through the analysis of public genome databases. The companies will create a single database each for the analysis of prostate adenocarcinomas and for the analysis of breast cancer.

Product Introductions

One Lambda, a Thermo Fisher Scientific company, launched in December 2014 the research-use only NXType Kit for HLA typing by NGS for use with the Ion Torrent PGM as part of a three-day workflow. There are future plans for CE and IVD marks.

Cellular Research released the Precise targeted RNASeq assay and launched application-focused panels for the Precise assays. Up to 4,608 samples can be sequenced in a single run.

In January, SoftGenetics introduced Mutation Surveyor 5.0, its software for analysis of Sanger sequencing, which features a new variant knowledge database.