Teranode Corporation, which offers an informatics platform that
has been developed to simulate biological and chemical reactions needed for the development of medical products, has closed
a $9.1 million Series B funding round. Investors in the round included Cargill Ventures and Trident Capital as well as previous
Series A investors, Ignition Partners and WRF Capital. The funds are planned for the advancement of the company’s product,
technology partnerships and a VAR (value added reseller) developer program.
The company’s TERANODE XDA design tool is used to integrate
experimental lab data with computational chemistry and biology. The tool is expected to bring forth an age of life science
tools that can be used to determine the expected results of an experiment without having to actually physically perform the
experiment with chemicals and life science materials. According to Paul Bieganski, Teranode board member and Managing Director
of Cargill Ventures, "Teranode's platform fundamentally transforms how biological and chemical experiments are conducted,
by accelerating and integrating design, measurement, and analysis. It has the potential to change the efficiency of experimentation
in this biotech era."
The new tool may become a catalyst for personalized medical simulation
tools of the future that model genetic makeup of individuals and give expected response as a result of prescription drugs
or nutritional supplement intake.
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A)has introduced its ChIP-on-chip
microarray (chromatin immunoprecipitation on glass slide microarrays) used for the analysis of the regulatory regions of genomes.
The technology is to assist researchers in the determination of active parts of the genome that are used in the regulation
of human health and disease mechanisms. The company indicates that the technology will further knowledge in the operating
activity of embryonic stem cells and a number of life-threatening diseases. According to Richard Young, Ph.D., of MIT and
its Whitehead Institute affiliate, "ChIP-on-chip goes beyond gene expression to explore gene regulation activity. Regulatory
proteins bind to genomic DNA to control DNA replication and gene expression, thereby functioning as switches in the regulatory
circuitry of cells. Combine this information with gene expression data and you get biomarkers."
Agilent in the announcement referenced the journal Cell. According
to Agilent, The Whitehead Institute in the September 8 issue refers to a mechanism discovered that relates to the human embryonic
stem cells ability to become any type of cell.
The ChIP-on-chip technology was originally developed at Computational
Biology Corp, which was acquired by Agilent in January 2005. Dr. Young, who now is consultant for Agilent, founded computational
Biology.
Genetic Technologies Limited(NASDAQ:GENE)(ASX:GTG) has launched
ACTN3 SportsGene Test in Japan through its Japanese distribution partner, Sportsstyle. SportsGene will be sold throughout
Japan.
Genetic Technologies director, Professor Deon Venter, a former British
Ironman Triathlon champion, indicated that the product would be used in Japan to explore the relationship between genetics
and sports, "Japan represents a significant market for the ACTN3 SportsGene Test, with highly influential sporting and government
bodies keen to explore the relationship between genetics and sporting performance. Japan is an extremely technologically-sophisticated
country and is now taking a leadership position in the science of optimizing a person's sports potential according to their
inherited genetic capabilities."
The product was launched at a ceremony in Tokyo, which included
the Japanese press, over 100 sports specialists and the President of the Japan Federation of Health and Sports.
Genetic Technologies reported that it would analyze the results
from SportsGene Test in Japan. Results are expected relatively soon.
