Date: Apr 02, 2013 Source: bizjournals (
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GnuBIO Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. has started shipping beta versions of its desktop DNA sequencing system, which it says is faster and cheaper than anything else on the market.
John Healy, vice president of informatics at GnuBIO, said that the first phase of the beta program is to "understand and customize the data flow and software control to meet the needs of the clinic."
"We will work very closely with our early clinical collaborators to create an informatics pipeline and software template that encapsulates the needs of the majority of the clinical market," said Healy in a statement.
GnuBIO was launched in June 2010 by CEO John Boyce based on technology developed by David Weitz, professor of physics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Department of Physics. The plan from the beginning was to make a DNA sequencer able to sequence the human genome in just a few hours for less than $100 a sample, and to sell the sequencer for less than $50,000. The system uses a coffee cup cartridge system to insert biological samples to be sequenced, and can deliver results in 3 1/2 hours, the company says.
The company has raised $18 million to date in two rounds, the most recent of which was a $10 million Series B round in October 2012 which was said to have come from a group of private investors, including shareholders in the company's Series A round.
Also, last September, the company got a $4.5 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute and moved into a new Kendall Square lab and office space that was double the size of its previous University Park location.
