Complete Genomics seals $45M for cheaper gene sequencing
Complete Genomics, provider of supposedly cheaper and faster DNA sequencing services, has raised $45 million in a fourth round of funding — a huge amount for a biotech company in today’s economic environment. Based in Mountain View, Calif., the company says it will be able to sequence people’s genes in only a few days, and for the bargain price of $5,000.
Apparently, genetic companies are where it’s at in the life science market right now. Earlier… Continue Reading
MIT busts genome reader Navigenics on patents
Navigenics, a Foster City, Calif. company that checks consumers’ genomes for indications of disease, is being sued by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for allegedly infringing on a patent that the university licensed exclusively to E8 Pharmaceuticals.
If MIT wins the suit, Navigenics will have to pay damages to both the school and E8. It will also have to pay to officially acquire the patent or pay royalties. This patent has been a sticking point before,… Continue Reading
23andMe gets $11M boost to decode your DNA
23andMe, the company that deciphers consumers’ genomes for them, has raised $11 million of an anticipated $24.26 million second round of capital. The company was cofounded by Anne Wojcicki, wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
The firm didn’t disclose its recent investors, but peHub noted this morning that venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures has just divested from the company. While MDV first acquired shares in 23andMe, it sold them back to the company 18 months… Continue Reading
Roundup: Six Apart launches ad network, Microsoft acquires Xobni…maybe and more
Here’s the latest action:
Six Apart evolves into an ad network — The blogging company behind MovableType, TypePad and Vox is offering a new advertising program which will give publishers more control over ads and revenue from their sites. The company claims its ad network will be better than the many others out there (with more popping up everyday) because it has the best experience with advertisements specific to blogs. The company also launched Six Apart Services… Continue Reading
23andMe’s European vacation and other personal-genomics notes
(UPDATED: Added links from Davos. Also, an earlier version of this post originally appeared at the end of this item.)
While I’ve been diving into deCODEme’s surprisingly spotty personal-genomics service, 23andMe has been whooping it up in Europe. The startup launched its consumer gene-scanning service there and made a splash at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where it handed out 1,000 free saliva-collection kits to attendees and another 50 for “elite journalists.” (Google’s Sergei Brin —… Continue Reading
deCODEme’s underwhelming personal-genomics service
(UPDATED: See below.)
Personal-genomics vendors like 23andMe and deCODEme, which promise to give ordinary individuals a peek at their genetic inheritance, have received a ton of press attention since they launched last November (not least of all from us — see here and here for starters). Unless you happened to have a spare $1,000 laying around, however, you were pretty much out of luck if you simply wanted to know exactly what you might be getting for… Continue Reading
23andMe lets you search and share your genome — today
(UPDATED: See below.)
Personal genomics is finally here.
23andMe, the Google-backed startup that promises to let individuals search and share their personal genetic information, just unveiled its service on its Web site. (A formal announcement is planned for Monday. For links to our previous coverage, see the end of this post or click here.) For $999, anyone can spit in a plastic tube the company will send you, then mail it back for a kind of shortcut scan… Continue Reading
Navigenics finally offers you a peek at your genome — except not really, and not yet
(UPDATED: See below.)
So at long last, one of the personal-genomics companies we’ve been writing about since May has finally launched its service. Navigenics, the Redwood City, Calif., startup that promises users a “personalized genetics analysis” so they can better manage their health risks, kicked off its business yesterday with a drum-rolling press release and a story clearly handed to the WSJ. (For a non-subscription version, click here.)
Except that, as it turns out, Navigenics hasn’t really launched… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007
Featured companies: Ganeden Biotech, Glenveigh Medical, Lab21, Lead Therapeutics, Navigenics, Pacific Data Designs, PharMEDium Healthcare, Sloning BioTechnology, VistaGen
UPDATED: Expanded items on Lead Therapeutics, Glenveigh Medical and Sloning BioTech, and moved the Navigenics news to a separate item here.
Lead Therapeutics raises $17M for China-based work in cancer and immunology — San Bruno, Calif.-based Lead Therapeutics, a drug-development startup that plans to do most of its research and development in China, raised $17 million in a first funding round…. Continue Reading
Will 23andMe and Navigenics lock up your genome and charge you for the key?
Over the last few months, startups like 23andMe and Navigenics have attracted a fair bit of attention for promising to let ordinary people search through their own genomes to better understand their disease risk, genealogy and ancestry. (For our coverage, see the links at the end of this item.) But one of the first major attempts to take a close look at them — courtesy of the November issue of Portfolio — left me with… Continue Reading
Complete Genomics and BioNanomatrix rev up the fast, cheap and out-of-control genome race
Things are starting to get crowded in the race to sequence entire human genomes quickly and relatively cheaply — usually meaning somewhere in the territory of $1,000 per genome, compared to the $100,000+ it costs with current technology. At least four startups have taken on the $1,000 genome challenge, two of which have already been acquired by larger companies. (See details at the end of the first item here.)
Last week, two relatively new venture-backed startups… Continue Reading
Craig Venter’s genome and our brave new world
(UPDATED: See below.)
It’s finally all about him.
By “him,” of course, I mean J. Craig Venter, the iconoclastic scientist who had his entire genome sequenced, posted in a public database, and analyzed in a scientific paper published Monday in the online journal PLoS Biology. If for some reason you hadn’t heard, feel free to take a moment to read all about it in the NYT, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, Reuters, CNN, or any of the… Continue Reading
Navigenics provides your genetic information, gets high-profile backing
Navigenics, a new secretive Silicon Valley company, wants to let you access your genetic information, so you can see what sort of diseases or sicknesses you may be prone to. It has backing from high-profile venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital.
It joins another company, 23andMe, doing something very similar — each exploiting the abundance of information available about the human genome, so that regular people can find information about themselves that they’ve never… Continue Reading
Personal-genetics startup Navigenics, a competitor to Google-backed 23andMe, unstealths
(UPDATED: See below.)
Navigenics, a new personal genetics startup with some serious backing, threw back the curtain over the weekend by unveiling its Web site. The Redwood Shores, Calif., startup says it aims to provide individuals with their genetic profiles and then to “arm” them with ways to improve their future heath.
This is very similar to what 23andMe, a similar startup backed by Google and Genentech (see our coverage here and here), intends to do. Adding to… Continue Reading