version of its GemCode platform for single-cell RNA sequencing at the J.P. Morgan Conference, saying it enables detailed gene-expression profiling on a cell-by-cell basis. San Diego’s Illumina launched a desktop MiniSeq Sequencing System, saying it enables a broad range of DNA and RNA sequencing applications.
—Immune Design (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IMDZ]]), based both in Seattle and South San Francisco, CA, said it has received orphan drug designation from the FDA for the two components of its treatment CMB305. Immune Design is currently in Phase 2 testing for soft tissue sarcoma, in combination with Genentech’s atezolizumab.
—Healthcare software maker Syapse of Palo Alto, CA, closed the first tranche of a $25 million Series C round led by the venture arm of health provider Ascension.
—Kodiak Sciences, the Palo Alto, CA-based biopharmaceutical developing new drugs for eye disease, said it has closed on a $34 million Series B financing round that was led by an unnamed U.S. life sciences investor. With the latest round, Kodiak has raised more than $60 million altogether.
—Two West Coast firms struck oncology deals, but didn’t divulge financial details. San Francisco’s Gritstone Oncology said it would license intellectual property, tools, and data from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Seattle’s Adaptive Biotechnologies said it would team up with
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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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