NEW YORK – The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit this week affirmed the US International Trade Commissions' decisions in two appeals related to patent litigation between Bio-Rad Laboratories and 10x Genomics.
10x Genomics had appealed a finding of indirect infringement of two Bio-Rad patents while Bio-Rad had appealed a finding that it had failed to prove that a product 10x imported infringed a third patent.
IsoPlexis said this week that it has acquired a portfolio of 86 patents related to DNA and RNA sequencing from an undisclosed entity. The technologies covered by the patents will integrate directly with the Branford, Connecticut-based firm's single-cell proteomics platforms to enable multiomic single-cell assays. Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.
23andMe said this week that it expects to begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange on June 17 under the ticker symbol "ME." In addition, warrants for the firm will trade under the symbol "MEUSW" following consummation of the firm's merger with VG Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company sponsored by Virgin Group. As previously reported, the merger places 23andMe's enterprise value at approximately $3.5 billion.
PerkinElmer said this week its contract for COVID-19 testing with the UK's NHS Test and Trace Newport Lighthouse laboratory in Newport, South Wales, has been extended through March 2020. The collaboration between the Waltham, Massachusetts-based firm and the lab started in October 2022, and more than 2 million samples have been processed since then for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. PerkinElmer's Chemagic 360 instruments and Janus G3 PCR+ workstations are being used in UK labs to automate the firm's RNA extraction and RT-PCR tests.
Lifebit Biotech said this week that it has been awarded a four-year contract by Hong Kong's Genome Institute to support the implementation of the Hong Kong Genome Project. The London-based company offers federated software for precision medicine projects. For the Hong Kong project, it will deploy a scalable cloud and high-performance computing infrastructure to obtain clinical diagnoses and research insights from sequencing data. The platform for the project will include up to 50,000 whole genomes, a clinical portal, and a research portal.
The Center for Genomic Interpretation announced this week that it has launched the ElevateGenetics Brilliant Program, a technical competency assessment to evaluate the accuracy of genetic and genomic lab findings. The program will assess how well DNA sequencing tests can detect and rigorously classify important mutations and therapeutic biomarkers, particularly in genetic sequences that are technically challenging, the center said in a statement. The program uses in silico proficiency testing to evaluate the competency of hereditary or germline disease tests, along with solid or liquid tumor profiling tests. For payors, the program's metrics can provide evaluations when contracting with laboratories. For labs, the program provides a third-party review that can improve the accuracy of test findings.
Single-cell genomics company Analytical BioSciences, or Abio, said this week that it has completed a Series A4 financing round of undisclosed size. Sequoia Capital China led the round and was joined by Green Pine Capital Partners, Primavera Venture Partners, and existing investor IDG Capital. Previous investors in the Beijing-based company also include SB China Venture Capital, BioMap, and Apricot Capital.
Abio, founded in 2018, maintains a database with single-cell genomics data from more than 27 million cells and has developed analytical and visualization tools. The new funding will accelerate the development of robust single-cell analytical systems and will allow the company to study novel cellular targets for drug discovery and development.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on GenomeWeb.