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In Brief This Week: Intellia; Cepheid; Precision for Medicine; and More

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – CRISPR therapeutics firm Intellia Therapeutics on Thursday evening priced its previously announced initial public offering of six million shares of common stock at $18 per share. In addition, Intellia has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 900,000 additional shares of common stock at the IPO price. Credit Suisse, Jefferies LLC, and Leerink Partners acted as joint book-running managers for the offering, while Wedbush PacGrow was lead manager.

Intellia's common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Friday under the ticker symbol NTLA. The shares were up more than 30 percent at $23.46 in afternoon trading.


Cepheid said this week that new recommendations from the US National Tuberculosis Controllers Association and the Association of Public Health Laboratories support the use of its Xpert MTB/RIF tuberculosis diagnostic to make decisions on using respiratory isolation in healthcare settings. The Xpert MTB/RIF test received FDA clearance for expanded claims relating to respiratory isolation in February 2015.


Precision for Medicine announced this week that is has acquired Applied Immunology, a company that develops custom cell-based and immunoassay products. The companies will combine Applied Immunology’s products with Precision's laboratory services in cell-based and immunoassays. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Precision also recently acquired ACT Oncology, an oncology clinical trials developer.


Diatherix Laboratories said this week that it has been designated a provider of laboratory services for NovaNet, a national preferred provider organization that covers more than 1 million physician locations and 5,200 hospitals via proprietary networks in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Northern Florida. Diatherix will provide a slate of laboratory benefit management services for the detection of infectious diseases. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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.

The Scan

Hormone-Based Gene Therapy to Sterilize Domestic Cat

A new paper in Nature Communication suggests that gene therapy could be a safer alternative to spaying domestic cats.

Active Lifestyle Linked to Type 2 Diabetes Prevention in People at High Genetic Risk

A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that an active lifestyle goes a long way in type 2 diabetes prevention.

Beneficial, Harmful Effects of Introgression Between Wild and Domesticated European Grapes

A paper in PNAS shows that European wild grapevines were an important resource for improving the flavor of cultivated wine grapes.

Genetic Ancestry of South America's Indigenous Mapuche Traced

Researchers in Current Biology analyzed genome-wide data from more than five dozen Mapuche individuals to better understand their genetic history.