Sequence Of Events

Abstract

Roche has acquired Genia Technologies, a privately held gene-sequencing company based in Mountain View, Calif. The Swiss drug and diagnostics company is looking to bolster its standing in the next-generation sequencing field after recent setbacks. Roche sees its purchase as a step toward introducing “a potentially disruptive technology to the market,” says Roland Diggelmann, chief operating officer of Roche Diagnostics. To do so, Roche is willing to pay Genia’s shareholders $125 million in cash and up to $225 million in milestone payments. Founded in 2009, Genia is developing a semiconductor-based system using nanopore technology for massively parallel, single-molecule DNA sequencing. Much of the core technology came from work with professors Jingyue Ju at Columbia University and George Church at Harvard University. Genia’s approach uses an assembly of protein pores in a lipid bilayer. Single nucleotides are identified through base-specific tags that are cleaved from the sequence and detected electrically...