NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Life Technologies said today that it has agreed to buy the genomics technologies firm BioTrove for an undisclosed sum.
The definitive merger agreement will give Life Technologies a high-throughput gene expression and genotyping system, the OpenArray, that will complement the company’s next-generation and PCR portfolio by enabling researchers to validate samples against large target panels, Life Technologies said.
“This acquisition and other enhancements recently made to our PCR offerings enable us to remain the leader in this space, and exemplify how Life Technologies is setting new technology standards in areas important to the company’s future growth,” company CEO Greg Lucier said in a statement.
BioTrove CEO Al Luderer called the merger “a perfect match,” and noted that the two firms have been collaborators since 2007.
“This acquisition will allow Life Technologies to build on those synergies and offer our customers even greater choice and flexibility in their gene expression and genotyping workflows,” Luderer added. By adding the OpenArray platform Life Technologies will, through its Applied Biosystems subsidiary, be able to offer “greater assay content in a higher density format,” Life Technologies explained.
ABI will make its TaqMan gene expression and genotyping assays available using the OpenArray under the ABI brand.
Life Technologies said it does not expect the acquisition to have a material effect on its books this fiscal year.
BioTrove said today in a separate announcement that it plans to form a subsidiary for its RapidFire business, which markets technologies for use in handling samples for mass spectrometry applications in drug development.
When the merger deal is completed that business, called Biocius Life Sciences, will be spun out as an independent operator.
Under that plan, current BioTrove investors will support the Biocius subsidiary and eventual spin-out, and the RapidFire team, to be led by CEO Jeffrey Leathe, will remain together.