Images of gene sequencing and micro droplets courtesy CE
Two Department of Chemistry spin-out companies have been highly successful in recent funding rounds.
Sphere Fluidics Limited, based on research by Professors Chris Abell and Wilhelm Huck, has won $7 million in investment for the development of Cyto-mine®, a unique single cell analysis system for the biopharmaceutical discovery and development market.
Sphere Fluidics uses ground-breaking biochip systems that automatically process millions to billions of miniaturised tests in tiny picodroplets. This allows tests on individual cells as well as whole ‘libraries’ of cells, and enables the study of the mechanism of cancer cell resistance to chemotherapy, the generation of new enzymes and identification of novel microbial strains.
Cyto-Mine® is an alpha-version of this single cell analysis and characterization system, developed for the biopharmaceutical discovery and development market. The funding round was led by an Asian corporate investor and included investment from angel funds such as 24Haymarket, Park Walk Advisors and London Business Angels.
Cambridge Epigenetix (CEGX), co-founded by Professor Shankar Balasubramanian, has announced the close of a $21 million Series B financing round, led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), with significant participation from Sequoia Capital. The company has also appointed Dr Geoff Smith as CEO; co-founder Dr Bobby Yerramilli-Rao will assume the role of Chair.
CEGX’s cutting-edge, patented technology is used by labs around the world for epigenomic sequencing. Professor Shankar Balasubramanian previously co-founded Solexa to develop Sequencing by Synthesis, now the basis for genetic sequencing around the world.