NEW YORK, Sept. 10 (GenomeWeb News) -- Beckman Coulter today announced the acquisition of the technologies of Peoples Genetics of Woburn, Mass., in an all-cash transaction.
Financial details were not provided.
The technologies, used for genetic analysis of large pooled populations of individual patient DNAs, include proceedures for sample prepartion and constant denaturant capillary electrophoresis. They were originally developed in a collaboration between MIT and Northeastern University.
Beckman will integrate the acquistion into its CEQ 8000 genetic analysis platform, the company said.
Additionally, William Thilly, former chief geneticist and professor of biological engineering at MIT; and Barry Karger, former CTO of Peoples and a professor of chemistry and director of the Barnett Institute at Northeastern University, will join Beckman as consultants.
Peoples Genetics, based in Woburn, Mass., developed the technology to locate disease-causing gene mutations from extraordinarily large populations. In October 2002 the company received a $2 million grant from the US Department of Commerce's Advanced Technology Program, subsequent to releasing its first-generation edition of its search tool.