[Update: 7:45 am Pacific 10/13] NanoString Technologies has spent much of the last year talking about its foray into diagnostic applications for its basic genetic analysis tool, but today it’s talking to researchers simply about getting some more oomph out of the machine. Seattle-based NanoString said today, in an announcement at the International Congress of … Continue reading “NanoString Rolls Out Souped-Up DNA Analysis Instrument at Genetics Confab”
Category: Seattle
Pfizer, deCode Genetics Strike Deal To Look For New Lupus Drug Targets
Companies like Pfizer that constantly need to develop new drugs never got much return on the investment in genomics a decade ago. But Pfizer is showing some renewed interest in genomics through a partnership being announced today with deCODE Genetics, the Iceland-based genomics company. deCODE, a 15-year-old operation which Arch Venture Partners and Polaris Venture … Continue reading “Pfizer, deCode Genetics Strike Deal To Look For New Lupus Drug Targets”
Zulily’s $43M Leads the Seattle-area Pack in End-of-Summer Fundraising Tally
They grow up so quick! Zulily, which offers daily “flash sales” on moms-and-kids items, easily led the field for angel and venture financing deals in Washington in August. That’s according to monthly data compiled by our partners at CB Insights, which tallied $79 million in overall financings across tech, biotech and cleantech companies for the … Continue reading “Zulily’s $43M Leads the Seattle-area Pack in End-of-Summer Fundraising Tally”
Seattle: Coffee Town with a Software Problem
Are you a highly educated, salmon-eating, coffee-swilling tech worker who likes soccer? Congratulations! You fit pretty easily into the profile of a Seattle consumer, as detailed by this infographic from Zaarly. The startup, which lets people crowdsource their needs by putting a price on specific goods or services, is based in San Francisco and Kansas … Continue reading “Seattle: Coffee Town with a Software Problem”
Swype, Jobs, Clearwire: the One-Minute Week in Seattle Tech Headlines
—Swype, one of the most talked-about startups in the Seattle area, made good on all the attention it’s earned by selling to mobile-software leader Nuance (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NUAN]]) for $102.5 million. Nuance has been gobbling up lots of technology and talent in the past few years, including Tegic Communications, the former home of Swype’s Cliff Kushler. … Continue reading “Swype, Jobs, Clearwire: the One-Minute Week in Seattle Tech Headlines”
How Not to Start a Startup
Startups can be a lot like first girlfriends (or boyfriends). You fall madly, passionately in love, think of them 24/7, talk, walk, eat, drink, breathe them, put everything into them and beyond, but sometimes, despite the passion, it just doesn’t work out. And, actually if you’re willing be to be brutally honest, in retrospect the … Continue reading “How Not to Start a Startup”
Stem Cell Therapy: A Process With a Promise
Stem cells hold the promise of ushering in a new era of regenerative medicine, as scientists and engineers have made significant progress in directing these powerful cells towards use in drug screening models and replacements for failing tissues. More recently, scientists have developed even more efficient and alternative methods for reprogramming cells into their desired … Continue reading “Stem Cell Therapy: A Process With a Promise”
Qliance Medical Names Erika Bliss New CEO
Seattle-based Qliance Medical Management, the company Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell and Drew Carey have supported to deliver primary care medical services in a new way, has shuffled around its executive team. Erika Bliss, one of the primary care physicians who founded Qliance in 2006, has been promoted to become president and CEO, while co-founder Norm … Continue reading “Qliance Medical Names Erika Bliss New CEO”
Smoke on the Water: Fireworks at the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit
I spent the early part of this week attending the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit and, despite the fact that the Cleveland Clinic stubbornly insists on holding its conference in Cleveland (aka The Mistake on the Lake), it was well worth attending. Cleveland is an interesting town. Once upon a time, when old white men … Continue reading “Smoke on the Water: Fireworks at the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit”
Matt McIlwain on the Traits of a Successful Entrepreneur
Matt McIlwain of Madrona Venture Group will be the guest speaker on Nov. 7 at the UW Foster School of Business. McIlwain will talk about “the traits of a successful entrepreneur.” For more information on how to register, click here.
Five Things Industry Can Do to Support True FDA Reform, and Restore Public Confidence
The FDA is one of the easiest punching bags in American politics. Depending on your point of view, it’s either too hard on business with its unreasonable demands, or too soft on those predatory drug companies seeking to profit off Grandma’s illness regardless of whether the products are safe. When it does its job well, … Continue reading “Five Things Industry Can Do to Support True FDA Reform, and Restore Public Confidence”
Sprint Makes it Pretty Clear: Clearwire on Its Own
Sprint (NYSE: [[ticker:S]]) is unveiling a new plan to upgrade its national wireless network today, and Kirkland, WA-based Clearwire is not part of the picture. That’s sent shares of Clearwire (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CLWR]]) into a nosedive, losing a third of their value in afternoon trading. It had previously seemed that Sprint, as the majority shareholder, might … Continue reading “Sprint Makes it Pretty Clear: Clearwire on Its Own”
When Will Software for the Genome Take Off? Find out Oct. 24
Illumina CEO Jay Flatley memorably called the bioinformatics industry “road kill” in an interview with Xconomy about 18 months ago. But have new opportunities started to emerge for genomic software startups now that scientists are really, Really, Really! crying out for better software to manage the data deluge? After all, isn’t the genomic data going … Continue reading “When Will Software for the Genome Take Off? Find out Oct. 24”
Saint Steve? Not Exactly. Apple and the Power of the Dark Side
Today’s column was co-written by myself and Curt Woodward, Xconomy’s Seattle-based senior editor. There’s a great term of art in the history profession: hagiography. It’s from the Greek for “holy writing,” and at one time it pertained mostly to biographies of saints. Well, there’s a whole lot of beatification going on this week as the … Continue reading “Saint Steve? Not Exactly. Apple and the Power of the Dark Side”
Five Perspectives on Steve Jobs: Reflections from Around the Xconomy Network
When the news broke that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died, there was no shortage of tributes and remembrances, from names big and small. And they’re still pouring out, from entrepreneurs, technologists, consumers, and more. We were able to tap into our network of guest authors, known as the Xconomists, for some insights into Jobs’ legacy … Continue reading “Five Perspectives on Steve Jobs: Reflections from Around the Xconomy Network”
Thong Le Named New Chairman of WBBA, Replacing Tom Clement
Thong Le, the well-wired venture investor at Seattle-based WRF Capital, is stepping up to become chairman of the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association, the state’s trade organization that represents biotech and medical device companies. Le will formally replace medical device entrepreneur Tom Clement in the volunteer chairmanship at the WBBA’s annual meeting, which coincides with … Continue reading “Thong Le Named New Chairman of WBBA, Replacing Tom Clement”
HomePipe Garners $150,000 Series A Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=874b69e1-05dd-494e-9c71-0f94c46fbdbf&Preview=1 Date 10/7/2011 Company Name HomePipe Mailing Address 19805 15th Ave. NW. Shoreline, WA 98177 Company Description The company provides a service that allows users to access and share files from any browser or mobile device. Website http://www.homepipe.net Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $150,000 Transaction Round Series A Proceeds Purposes Proceeds … Continue reading “HomePipe Garners $150,000 Series A Financing”
Done Deal: Nuance Buying Swype for Around $100M in Cash
[Updated 10/7/11, 8 am Pacific] There’s a Tegic Communications reunion shaping up in Seattle. Documents filed with the SEC show that Nuance Communications is buying mobile software startup Swype for $102.5 million. As we reported last night, based on a source with knowledge of the deal, about three-quarters of the cash is paid up-front with … Continue reading “Done Deal: Nuance Buying Swype for Around $100M in Cash”
The Essential Steve Jobs for Today’s Pharmaceutical Executive
It is hard to overestimate the importance of Steve Jobs on the American psyche. The co-founder and guiding force of Apple has died, succumbing to a long illness after only recently stepping down as chief executive. But his impact continues beyond his life, his business, his industry, his leadership, and his vision. One only needs to … Continue reading “The Essential Steve Jobs for Today’s Pharmaceutical Executive”
Steve Jobs & the Power of Vision: My Visits to the ‘Reality Distortion Field’
Steve was an incredible product visionary and had an uncompromising sense of product design. Aldus and desktop publishing came about because Steve had a vision of what was possible by marrying a plain paper copier to a computer to make the Apple Laserwriter. When the Laserwriter was introduced it cost $7000, more than twice as much … Continue reading “Steve Jobs & the Power of Vision: My Visits to the ‘Reality Distortion Field’”
Intellectual Ventures Sues Motorola Amid Acquisition by Google – an IV Investor
Intellectual Ventures is stepping up its position in the mobile patent wars, suing Motorola Mobility in federal court today for allegedly infringing on a range of patents covering hardware and software. Irony alert: Google, which is in the middle of acquiring Motorola Mobility for about $12.5 billion, has been listed in previous court filings as … Continue reading “Intellectual Ventures Sues Motorola Amid Acquisition by Google – an IV Investor”
Helping Patients Better, Faster, Cheaper: WBBA Event
The WBBA is hosting a forum on translational medicine on Oct. 12, honing in on the process of turning biological discoveries into drugs and/or medical devices that can help patients better, faster, and cheaper. Speakers include Tom Clement, the CEO of Aqueduct; Tom Fritz, the CEO of Inland Northwest Health Services; Mike Gallatin, the former … Continue reading “Helping Patients Better, Faster, Cheaper: WBBA Event”
Steve Jobs: The Soul of an Industry
When I heard the news of Steve Jobs’s death last night, even though I was hardly surprised, I felt like I had been kicked in the gut—as if the industry in which I’ve spent my career had lost its soul. I’m rarely shy about criticizing the titans of our industry, but from the beginning Steve … Continue reading “Steve Jobs: The Soul of an Industry”
Steve Jobs: A Few Memories
I’m so sad this evening—as millions are—to hear of Steve Jobs’s death. Scattered over the last quarter century, I learned much from Steve Jobs, and was proud to consider him a friend. And indeed, he contributed in various ways to all three of my major life projects so far: Mathematica, A New Kind of Science and Wolfram|Alpha. I … Continue reading “Steve Jobs: A Few Memories”
Varolii Helps Southwest Wrangle Pilot Schedules, Sees Bigger Moves Ahead
Here’s a sign that your industry is ripe for a technological overhaul: Last-minute scheduling is sometimes handled by old-fashioned phone trees, with human schedulers making hundreds of phone calls a day to fill open slots. That was the case at Southwest Airlines (NYSE: [[ticker:LUV]])—at least it was before a new text-messaging program supplied by Seattle-based … Continue reading “Varolii Helps Southwest Wrangle Pilot Schedules, Sees Bigger Moves Ahead”
Xconomist of the Week: Five Questions for New York Life Sciences 2031 Panelist Eric Schadt
Eric Schadt’s career as a scientist has been focused on unlocking genetic cues to common human diseases such as diabetes and obesity. He is the chief scientific officer of Pacific Biosciences, a Menlo Park, CA, company that develops gene-sequencing technologies. He recently joined Mount Sinai Medical Center as the director of the Institute for Genomics … Continue reading “Xconomist of the Week: Five Questions for New York Life Sciences 2031 Panelist Eric Schadt”
Light Sciences Stumbles, Cardiac Dimensions Gets EU OK, Immune Design Pockets $11M, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
This week had a smattering of pretty significant updates from companies that tend to (try anyway) to keep a pretty low profile. —Seattle-based Immune Design, the developer of vaccine technology, said it has pulled in another $11 million through the second tranche of its previously announced Series B venture financing. The company is backed by … Continue reading “Light Sciences Stumbles, Cardiac Dimensions Gets EU OK, Immune Design Pockets $11M, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
How Steve Jobs Rewired Our Lives-and Raised Our Expectations
What was Steve Jobs’ greatest contribution to society? The amazing thing is that there are so many answers to choose from. Was it the insanely great Mac? Or perhaps the iPod and the MP3 music revolution? Or Pixar and Toy Story and all of the studio’s other animated wonders? Or the iPhone and the iPad … Continue reading “How Steve Jobs Rewired Our Lives-and Raised Our Expectations”
Nuance Communications Acquires Swype for $102,500,000
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=de0c9a71-d36a-4154-ba64-41b05ab2f0b0&Preview=1 Date 10/6/2011 Company Name Swype Mailing Address 701 North 34th St Seattle, WA 98104 Company Description Swype is a maker of text-input technology for mobile devices. Website http://www.swypeinc.com Transaction Type M&A Transaction Amount $102,500,000 Transaction Round Proceeds Purposes M&A Terms The aggregate consideration payable to the former shareholders of Swype consists … Continue reading “Nuance Communications Acquires Swype for $102,500,000”
Steve Jobs: A Technology Guy For the Rest of Us
It’s impossible to overstate Jobs’s contributions. First, monumental contributions to design. Design is at least as much about what to omit as it is about what to include, and Jobs was a master of both. As you saw in the New York Times last month, Jobs’s design patents ranged from the Mac Air, the iPhone, … Continue reading “Steve Jobs: A Technology Guy For the Rest of Us”
Social Media Agency Spring Creek Group Acquired by Interpublic
Seattle social media agency Spring Creek Group has been sold to the Mediabrands division of Interpublic Group, a global marketing and media company that controls a bundle of agencies, including PR firm Weber Shandwick and ad agency McCann Erickson. The news comes via this blog post from Spring Creek founder Clay McDaniel. Terms weren’t disclosed. … Continue reading “Social Media Agency Spring Creek Group Acquired by Interpublic”
Immune Design Rakes In Another $11M From Prior VC Round
Seattle-based Immune Design has quietly pulled in another $11 million in venture capital. That new cash represents the second installment of a Series B financing that the company announced last July, when it was said to be worth as much as $32 million total. Immune Design, the developer of new vaccine technology, disclosed the new … Continue reading “Immune Design Rakes In Another $11M From Prior VC Round”
Unless You Are Awesome, You Will Be Outsourced
We’re quickly moving to a new world where the wealth gap is compounding and increasing. We’re moving to a world that is going to look a lot like Hollywood: a few people enjoying insane success … and everyone else spends their days waiting tables. The delta between A-players and B-players in companies has always been … Continue reading “Unless You Are Awesome, You Will Be Outsourced”
Tweetchat on RNA Interference Upstages iPhone (Not Really, but It Was Still Fun)
Who says you can’t be smart, witty, or say anything of substance in 140 characters or less? Alnylam Pharmaceuticals CEO John Maraganore had a zinger ready yesterday as Apple’s dog-and-pony show was happening during the first Xconomy “Tweetchat,” on the latest ups and downs in RNA interference. “RNAi vs iPhone, RNAi better for patients” is … Continue reading “Tweetchat on RNA Interference Upstages iPhone (Not Really, but It Was Still Fun)”
Six Cities, Six Big Tech Ideas Coming to Boston on December 1: Stephen Wolfram to Keynote
Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. Ahem. [A giant “6×6” fills the screen.] Macho narrator voice: Star Wars had The Empire Strikes Back (Vader: “I am your father”) The Godfather had The Godfather Part II (Pacino: “You broke my heart”) Mad Max had The Road Warrior…well, you get the idea. Now Xconomy presents 6×6, the … Continue reading “Six Cities, Six Big Tech Ideas Coming to Boston on December 1: Stephen Wolfram to Keynote”
FDA, After Taking Heat, Offers Up Reforms to Support Pharma, Biotech & Device Innovation
The FDA has spent decades talking about how its job is to make sure all kinds of U.S. medical products are safe to use, and effective. Now it’s coming out with a new strategic outline on how it intends to do all that same stuff, while also spurring the development of more innovative drugs and … Continue reading “FDA, After Taking Heat, Offers Up Reforms to Support Pharma, Biotech & Device Innovation”
Marina Biotech Ends Bothell Lease on Nasal Spray Building, Coughs up Shares to Landlord
Marina Biotech, the developer of RNA interference drugs, has been running low on cash for a while, and now it has found a way to send less cash every month to its landlord. The Bothell, WA-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MRNA]]) said today in a regulatory filing that it has terminated the lease on its lab … Continue reading “Marina Biotech Ends Bothell Lease on Nasal Spray Building, Coughs up Shares to Landlord”
Four Things Lawyers and Hackers Have in Common
Are hackers and lawyers really that different? If you hear someone talking about the two in the same sentence, you’d be well within your rights to assume it was an expansion of the old debate about whether a pirate or a ninja would win in a fight. On first impression, the hacker (a.k.a. the software … Continue reading “Four Things Lawyers and Hackers Have in Common”
Light Sciences Oncology Stumbles in Clinical Trial, Layoffs Loom
Light Sciences Oncology, the Bellevue, WA-based developer of an unusual drug/device combo treatment for cancer, has failed in a pivotal clinical trial and is preparing to make deep cuts, including layoffs, Xconomy has learned from sources familiar with the situation. The privately-held company has raised well over $130 million since its founding in 1995, from … Continue reading “Light Sciences Oncology Stumbles in Clinical Trial, Layoffs Loom”
Join Us at 1 pm Eastern/10 am Pacific for RNAi “Tweetchat” with Alnylam’s John Maraganore
Here’s just a quick reminder that we’re doing the live Tweetchat today with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals CEO John Maraganore. This chat, which anyone with a Twitter account is free to join, will be held today at 1 pm Eastern/10 am Pacific. The best way to follow the questions and answers will be to follow the live … Continue reading “Join Us at 1 pm Eastern/10 am Pacific for RNAi “Tweetchat” with Alnylam’s John Maraganore”
Amazon, Khosla, Tippr: The 1-Minute Week in Seattle Tech Headlines
—Amazon (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMZN]]) jumped into the tablet game with the much-hyped Kindle Fire device, but don’t be fooled. The new tablet is not about Amazon getting into the hardware business—it’s much more about making sure that consumers get access to Amazon’s slew of cloud services and traditional shopping on something other than Apple’s iPad, which … Continue reading “Amazon, Khosla, Tippr: The 1-Minute Week in Seattle Tech Headlines”
Emergent BioSolutions Snags $1.25B Contract to Provide Anthrax Vaccine to Feds
Rockville, MD-based Emergent Biosolutions (NYSE: EBS) today announced it has landed a contract worth $1.25 billion over five years to provide the federal government with 44.75 million doses of BioThrax, the only vaccine licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to protect against anthrax infection. The company will manufacture the vaccine at its facility in … Continue reading “Emergent BioSolutions Snags $1.25B Contract to Provide Anthrax Vaccine to Feds”
Rhapsody Adds Napster – and Maybe Some Overseas Subscribers
Rhapsody, the online-subscription music service that spun out of RealNetworks last year, is acquiring online music pioneer Napster from retailer Best Buy. Seattle-based Rhapsody didn’t say how much it is paying for Napster, and it wouldn’t say how many U.S. subscribers it may add through the acquisition, but the company did say Napster was its … Continue reading “Rhapsody Adds Napster – and Maybe Some Overseas Subscribers”
Lee Davenport, A Technological Hero, Dies at 95: Here are His 7 Rules for Fostering Innovation
Over the weekend, I learned that one of my heroes, Lee Davenport, had just passed away. Lee died of cancer at the age of 95 in his longtime home of Greenwich, CT. That’s where I first met him in 1994, when I was researching a book about the MIT Radiation Laboratory, the World War II … Continue reading “Lee Davenport, A Technological Hero, Dies at 95: Here are His 7 Rules for Fostering Innovation”
Why Universities Are Key to the Future of Biotech, and How UCSF’s Chief is Showing the Way
These are hard times at universities in America. State support is dwindling, tuition is booming, and federal research dollars are in jeopardy. Morale has taken a beating. But U.S. academic research centers are still the driving force for innovative new medicines, like always. And anyone who cares about U.S. universities should pay attention to what’s … Continue reading “Why Universities Are Key to the Future of Biotech, and How UCSF’s Chief is Showing the Way”
Reinventing the Board
Imagine a world where technology companies are more successful and grow faster because of the strategic help and guidance from their boards of directors. Or, at least imagine a world where they don’t suffer from unhelpful, or worse, problematic boards that consume management’s precious time. Some commentators like Steve Blank, Jeff Bussgang, Brad Feld, and … Continue reading “Reinventing the Board”
Vinod Khosla: A Brutally Honest VC Tells Startup Weekenders to Make an Impact
Vinod Khosla admits he’s not really known as a polite guy. But he comes by it honestly. “I sort of had a habit at age 12 of insulting priests in India, because it was fun for me. I was a troll,” Khosla said Friday. “There is fun in that. If there’s a lot of conventional … Continue reading “Vinod Khosla: A Brutally Honest VC Tells Startup Weekenders to Make an Impact”
Can Crowdsourcing Make a Dent in Unemployment? Ask MobileWorks
Jobs are the single biggest political issue of the day in the U.S., and rightly so. As of August, the official unemployment rate in the United States stood at 9.1 percent. That was down one point from the October 2009 peak of 10.1 percent, but still higher than at any time since the 1930s, with … Continue reading “Can Crowdsourcing Make a Dent in Unemployment? Ask MobileWorks”
Cardiac Dimensions Wins EU Approval for Heart Failure Device, Aims for Market in 2012
Kirkland, WA-based Cardiac Dimensions, after 10 years of developing a new device to tighten up leaky heart valves in heart failure patients, is now ready to roll with its first product approved for sale in Europe. Cardiac Dimensions said today it has been granted permission by European Union regulators to start selling its Carillon Mitral … Continue reading “Cardiac Dimensions Wins EU Approval for Heart Failure Device, Aims for Market in 2012”
3Tier Cuts Deal With Bloomberg to Bring Wind Energy Tool to Wall Street
Seattle-based 3Tier, the company that uses supercomputers to map the best spots in the world for setting up solar and wind energy projects, has found a way to put its tool in front of a lot more people with money to bankroll the work. 3Tier said today it has formed a partnership with Bloomberg New … Continue reading “3Tier Cuts Deal With Bloomberg to Bring Wind Energy Tool to Wall Street”