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LaserGen Raises $5M; Consulting Firm to Assist on Sequencer Commercialization Plans

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Next-generation sequencing instrument firm LaserGen today announced it has closed its $5 million Series A financing round and signed on a life science consulting firm to assist with commercialization plans.

The $5 million round will be used to demonstrate accurate sequencing of the E. coli genome in the next few months, LaserGen said, and to develop the Baylor College of Medicine spinout's next-generation sequencing system.

Last month, the Houston-based company announced a collaboration with National Instruments to develop a platform based on LaserGen's reversible terminator chemistry, dubbed Lightning Terminators. The partners said at the time that they hoped to develop the platform and have it installed at a genome center for validation testing by the end of the year.

LaserGen also announced today that life science M&A advisory and consulting firm Popper and Company will help the firm with its commercialization plans. LaserGen CEO Michael Metzker said in a statement that the collaboration with National Instruments is "well under way and the time is right to think about how to deliver the new NGS system to the marketplace."

Leading the Series A round was Aspen MedTech Ventures III. Thomas Thompson, managing partner of Aspen MedTech has joined LaserGen's board. LBS Technologies, San Luis Developments, and other Houston angel investors also participated in the round.

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