The researchers identified proteins that the starfish emit when aggregating to reproduce, and could be used to create synthetic chemicals to help capture and eradicate the pest.
The proceeds will be used to advance the firm's CropOS computational platform, and to develop other promising product candidates for increasing crop yields.
The company has developed a suite of initial products focused on ancestry that will compete with offerings from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, and Family Tree DNA.
The Seattle-based firm plans to partner with pharma and biotech to use its duplex sequencing technology in applications such as oncology and forensics.
The company sells the portable Hunter Real-Time PCR instrument for DNA analysis and a portfolio of test kits for use in food safety, food fraud, and microbiologically influenced corrosion.
The proceeds from the seed round will enable the company to fund the development and commercial launch of a $15 genomic test for dairy and beef cattle.
The Thermo Fisher subsidiary is not liable to Promega in the US for selling infringing forensic DNA kits in Europe, containing US-manufactured Taq polymerase.
IDT has licensed the CRISPR/Cpf1 RNA-guided editing system from the Broad Institute and intends to sell it to pharmaceutical and other commercial labs.
A senator wants a "right-to-try" provision in the US Food and Drug Administration funding bill, but an ethicist says at Stat News that it would undermine the role of clinical trials.
