It was another big week for life sciences news in San Diego, with interesting developments in agricultural biotech, industrial biotech, and genomic sequencing. This is our wrap up of what you need to know.
—San Diego’s Synthetic Genomics spun out a new San Diego-based agricultural biotech, Agradis, with $20 million in Series A financing and proprietary technology that can be used to develop improved hybrid crops such as castor and sweet sorghum. Mexican investor and businessman Alfonso Romo is a co-founder of Agradis, along with J. Craig Venter, Synthetic Genomics’ chairman and CEO.
—TedMed is underway this week at the Hotel del Coronado. Peter Diamandis, the chairman and co-founder of the X Prize Foundation, took the stage yesterday to announce some changes in its $10 million competition in genomic sequencing. The foundation, based near Los Angeles, says the $10 million Archon Genomics X Prize presented by Medco will be awarded to the first team that accurately sequences the whole genome of 100 people within 30 days for $1,000 or less per genome, and at an error rate no greater than one per million base pairs. The prize is intended to open the way to new era of personalized medicine with unprecedented accuracy.
—San Diego’s Illumina, (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ILMN]]), the market-leading maker of DNA sequencing equipment, said it’s eliminating 200 jobs, or about 8 percent of its workforce. Illumina said a restructuring of its business is expected to add a $15 million to $17 million charge on the company’s income statement, mostly in the fourth quarter.
—In a separate announcement, GenoLogics of Victoria, BC, said it has raised $8 million through a strategic financing in the company by San Diego’s Illumina. GenoLogics said it plans to develop genomics software tailored for cheaper desktop sequencers, to build up its sales and marketing efforts, and develop new applications.
—The MoneyTree Report on third-quarter venture capital activity found
