NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Illumina has signed a 10-year lease at BioMed Realty's i3 campus in San Diego, BioMed said this week. The campus, which is under construction, will serve as an expansion of Illumina's headquarters. The company is expected to move in sometime in July 2017. The i3 campus will be comprised of three 100,000 square foot customizable buildings.
Bayer signed a collaboration agreement with Meiogenix this week to provide the researchers in its crop science division with Meiogenix's SpiX plant breeding technology. SpiX increases the genetic diversity of plant germplasm by redirecting the natural and conserved process of meiotic recombination, Meiogenix said. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission this week, Alere said it has cancelled plans to divest its stake in Swiss Precision Diagnostics. The company is a joint venture between Alere and Procter & Gamble for the development and sale of consumer diagnostics.
Great Basin Scientific announced this week that it has successfully completed an exchange of its Series E warrants for a reduced number of shares of its common stock. The Series E warrants, which would have been exercisable for 1.68 million shares, will be exchanged for 650,160 shares. The warrants were originally issued in conjunction with Great Basin's Feb. 24 public financing, and the exchange is part of the company's plan to come back into compliance with Nasdaq listing rules, the firm said.
Interpace Diagnostics announced this week that it has signed an agreement with Galaxy Health Network to provide coverage for all of Interpace's molecular pathology tests and services, including the ThyGenX/ThyraMIR combination test to improve pre-operative diagnosis and surgical management of patients with indeterminate thyroid nodules, and the PancraGEN test for the diagnosis and risk stratification of pancreatic cancer from suspicious cysts.
Interpace also announced this week that it collected more than $1.3 million in cash from sales of its diagnostic tests during the month of March, the highest amount since its formation in November 2014. Interpace plans to report its first quarter 2016 financial results in early May.
New England BioLabs announced this week that the winner of the Genes in Space STEM competition will finally see her experiment launched to the International Space Station on April 8. The goal of 17-year-old Anna-Sophia Boguraev's experiment is to whether there are links between genetic changes to DNA and astronauts' weakened immune systems. The PCR machine provided by competition co-sponsor miniPCR will remain onboard the ISS for future research projects.
Pressure BioSciences said this week that it has received $769,667 in the final close of its $5 Million PIPE financing. This final closing increases the total the company raised in the offering to $6,329,667. Under the terms of the offering, Pressure issued senior secured convertible debentures to investors with a fixed conversion price of $.28 per restricted common share, and common stock purchase warrants exercisable into shares of restricted common stock at an exercise price of $.40 per share.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on the GenomeWeb site.