implementing its plans, which include developing a dedicated research group, in-licensing and acquisition, and other strategic moves needed to establish itself as a leading supplier of research services, laboratory instruments, and supplies to customers that specialize in synthetic biology. It’s a global market that Genome Web predicts will grow to $2.4 billion over the next three years.
“When we decide at Life to spend $100 million, we thoroughly think through the strategy,” says Wood, who also sits on the board of SG Biofuels and who oversees Life’s minority investment in Synthetic Genomics. He described it as “one of the medium-size initiatives” the company is doing.
Life’s $350 million acquisition in August of Ion Torrent, a leader in rapid gene sequencing, was not directly related to the company’s synthetic biology initiative, but it helped. While Ion Torrent was acquired as part of the genetic systems business, Wood says, “Simplifying the sequencing, and making it more affordable and faster is one area where there is overlap” with synthetic biology. Likewise, Wood says the company’s cell systems division makes dyes that detect certain molecules, which is useful as companies like Synthetic Genomics analyze cells that they have genetically engineered.
“So there are synergies across all of our divisions with this initiative,” Wood said.
Author: Bruce V. Bigelow
In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here.
Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.
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