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Halcyon's Days May Have Ended

The technology blog GigaOm reports that DNA sequencing startup Halcyon Molecular has shut down. According to GigaOm, "sources familiar with the Redwood City, Calif.-based company say that it ran out of money."

As previously reported by Daily Scan's sister publication In Sequence, the company was developing a method for sequencing DNA that relied on stretching out single-stranded DNA molecules on a substrate and reading labeled bases by transmission electron microscopy.

The technology promised reads of at least 150 kilobases and as long as 4 megabases, with the ability to sequence a human genome to more than 99.9999-percent consensus accuracy and completeness in less than 10 minutes, at a cost of less than $100.

The firm was founded in 2003 by brothers Michael and William Andregg and received venture capital funding from the Founders Fund, and, in 2009, it was awarded $1.29 million in funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute. Additionally, in 2009, it received just over $244,000 under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Program, created by the US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.