10x Genomics acquires Epinomics
Furthers 10x leadership across Genomics applications; brings inventors of ATAC-seq technology to 10x. 10x Genomics, an actor in the genomics field, announced its first acquisition with Epinomics, a pioneer in the growing epigenetics space. The acquisition will give 10x Genomics ATAC-seq technology and fundamental IP to accelerate discoveries and further research in epigenomics, paving the way for a new understanding of disease, diagnostics and therapeutics.
10x Genomics will immediately integrate Epinomics’ proprietary epigenetic technology into its Chromium Single Cell ATAC Solution, which is expected to launch by the end of 2018, offering researchers and pharmaceutical companies tools to better understand biological mechanisms. 10x Genomics builds tools and applications that leverage advances in sequencing along with innovations in hardware, chemistry and software.
The genomics market is seeing exponential growth and is estimated to be at approximately $24 billion by 2022. 10x Genomics is the actor in single-cell and other emerging areas of genomic analysis enabling greater resolution to accelerate the understanding of new biology and disease. Its customers have already analyzed over 130 million single cells, broadly equivalent to sequencing 18,000 human genomes.
“Our goal is to accelerate science and enable our customers to see biology they could not see before,” said Serge Saxonov, CEO and co-founder of 10x Genomics. “Acquisition gives us a strong team, IP and technology that has been enthusiastically validated by customers. It provides a foundation for powerful new products and positions us well to become the actor in epigenomics.”
Epinomics was founded by the team that developed the ATAC-seq technology, a ground-breaking approach to measure and understand the epigenome. Its technology and analytics platform has been adopted by scientific institutions and commercial organizations. Epinomics’ patent portfolio, which includes foundational issued IP relating to ATAC-seq, enhances and complements 10x Genomics’ existing patent portfolio which covers high throughput single cell applications for ATAC-seq and other epigenetic applications. Epinomics is backed by venture capital firms including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Felicis Ventures, and Founders Fund.
“With Epinomics joining 10x Genomics, single cell epigenetics will now be available to a broader base of investigators across academic and commercial organizations,” said Howard Chang, professor of Dermatology and Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine, co-inventor of ATAC-seq and a scientific co-founder of Epinomics. “The innovations coming out of this acquisition will propel the genomics field forward.”
“We are excited to be joining forces with 10x Genomics to transform research and advance healthcare by leveraging cutting-edge scientific technology and deep data analytics,” added Fergus Chan, co-founder and CEO of Epinomics.
Chan and his co-founder, Paul Giresi, a co-inventor of the ATAC-seq technology, and the Epinomics team will join 10x Genomics immediately. The scientific co-founders, Chang and Will Greenleaf, assistant professor in Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine and co-inventor of ATAC-seq, will join as scientific advisors to 10x Genomics. Both have done pioneering work in genetics including inventing new methods for epigenomic profiling, discovering new classes of genes, and have been published extensively.
Source: https://www.10xgenomics.com/