NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Foundation Medicine's supply, service, and support agreement with Illumina inked in July is for five years and approximately $6.1 million, the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm said in an amended Form S-1 filed this week. The company originally disclosed the deal with Illumina in its Form S-1 filed in July in preparation of its initial public offering, but did not reveal the terms. Foundation plans to offer up to $86.3 million in its IPO.
Thermo Fisher Scientific announced a STEM scholarship program that will award nearly $700,000 each year. The program will provide financial assistance to students pursuing an undergraduate degree or the equivalent in a science, technology, engineering, or math field. The students must attend one of five schools located in regions where Thermo Fisher has a "significant" presence: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of Wisconsin, Madison; University of California, Berkeley; Imperial College London; and Fudan University in Shanghai.
The program will provide funding to 44 students annually. Thermo Fisher said it plans to grow it to full maturity in four years with 164 students.
RUCDR Infinite Biologics has added NuGen Technologies to its group of technology sponsors. RUCDR, a unit of Rutgers University, said it is the world's largest university-based biorepository and stores more than 12 million biosamples. RUCDR and NuGen already have a longstanding collaboration and have several projects underway, including sample prep methods for RNA-seq analysis of single cells and rapid target enrichment technology for next-generation analysis. RUCDR was also the first biorepository to implement NuGen's RNA sample archiving technology to generate a more stable and renewable cDNA resource from limited quantities of RNA, while reducing downstream analysis variability between different users, RUCDR said.
Epigenomics completed the issuance of convertible bonds with a nominal amount of €500,000 ($661,000). The convertible bonds constitute the first tranche of a total issuance of up to €5 million guaranteed as part of a deal between Epigenomics and YA Global Master.
The Bode Technology Group and the Bensalem Police Department in Virginia have reached a deal for the use of BodeHITS DNA service. BodeHITS comprises a database of DNA samples and analysis services. According to Bode, BodeHITS has resulted in hundreds of DNA matches and arrests in cases which otherwise may not have been solved. The Bensalem Police Department has collected more than 7,000 samples, all of which will be converted to the BodeHITS database at no charge to the police department, Bode said.
In Brief This Week is a Friday column containing news items that our readers may have missed during the week.