NEW YORK – Qiagen said this week that it has opened a new data center in Melbourne, Australia, to strengthen its leadership position in bioinformatics in the region. The new location also expands the company's network of data centers that also includes the US, UK, Denmark, Turkey, South Korea, Japan, and China, it said. The new facility will provide in-country data hosting to support genomic testing labs in Australia.
Devyser Diagnostics reported this week that its fourth quarter net sales jumped 42 percent year over year to SEK 64.2 million ($5.9 million) from SEK 45.4 million on growth in each of its markets and several large orders from Thermo Fisher Scientific. The Swedish diagnostics firm posted an after-tax loss of SEK 3.2 million, or SEK .19 per share, for the quarter ended in December compared to an after-tax loss of SEK 13.1 million, or SEK .80 per share, one year earlier.
The company also said that its full-year 2024 net sales rose 28 percent to SEK 216.9 million from SEK 169.3 million in FY 2023. The firm posted a full-year after-tax loss of SEK 61.5 million, or SEK 3.75 per share, compared to an after-tax loss of SEK 53.6 million, or SEK 3.31 per share, for 2023.
London-headquartered skin microbiome testing company Sequential Skin and Singapore-based Amili have been awarded the UK-Singapore Collaborative R&D Grant to support a $1.8 million project to characterize the interplay between the skin and gut microbiomes. The overarching goal of the research, which is also supported by Innovate UK and Enterprise SG, is to develop better approaches to evaluating inflammatory skin disorders such as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis, the companies said this week. Sequential maintains a database of over 25,000 clinical skin microbiome samples and has offered commercial skin microbiome at-home tests since 2019. Amili has focused on developing and analyzing Asia's largest multiethnic gut microbiome database to map the relationships and mechanistic pathways between changes in the gut microbiome and health conditions.
Epigenetic testing firm TruDiagnostic this week announced it has launched the TruDiscovery grant, which offers $400,000 in funding for researchers and organizations pioneering advancements in DNA methylation, longevity science, and diagnostic innovation. The grant is intended to bridge the gap between research and real-world applications surrounding DNA methylation. The deadline for applying is April 5, and the award will be announced May 4.
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.