Cofactor Genomics

St. Louis-based Cofactor will use the National Cancer Institute's clinical specimens in order to validate its Paragon assay platform.

The financing follows Cofactor's launch of Pinnacle, an RNA-based oncology assay and the company's first product since a strategic refocusing.

The platform will be designed to gather all necessary data from a single RNA extraction, eliminating the need for flow cytometry, genomic sequencing, and expression profiling.

The companies will combine Cofactor's RNA-seq know-how with SII's big data analytics offerings to provide services for pharmaceutical research customers.

The RNA products developer is buying California-based Narus in order to expand into the RNA-based diagnostics market.

The company aims to use the funding to further optimize the technology and support an ongoing early-access program with beta testers.

The firm was named a certified service provider for Agilent's SureSelect Methyl-Seq target enrichment.