Gene By Gene, the ambitious Texas laboratory focusing on personal genomic testing, has acquired Arpeggi, a startup firm that is expected to greatly expanding its ability to perform sequencing in-house. Terms of the deal for Arpeggi, which is based in Austin, Texas, were not disclosed. Founded last year, Arpeggi was financially backed by GE’s health care ventures division. All six of Arpeggi’s employees immediately relocated to Houston, where Gene By Gene is based. Three of them were named the company’s chief business, technology, and scientific officers. Gene By Gene President and Managing Partner Bennett Greenspan said the acquisition of Arpeggi’s proprietary sequencing software would make it much easier to expand product offerings and reduce turnaround times for testing. Some of the company’s tests take three weeks or more to turn around. “By having in shop a group of guys with a lot of next-generation sequencing and scoring knowledge, it basically means we can tackle almost anything in the human area,” Greenspan said. “If we want to put together a panel for 40 genes or exomes, we will be able to do it in-house.” The company had previously used licensed software for sequencing, but it was painfully slow. Using the Arpeggi […]
Gene By Gene, the ambitious Texas laboratory focusing on personal genomic testing, has acquired Arpeggi, a startup firm that is expected to greatly expanding its ability to perform sequencing in-house.
Terms of the deal for Arpeggi, which is based in Austin, Texas, were not disclosed. Founded last year, Arpeggi was financially backed by GE’s health care ventures division.
All six of Arpeggi’s employees immediately relocated to Houston, where Gene By Gene is based. Three of them were named the company’s chief business, technology, and scientific officers.
Gene By Gene President and Managing Partner Bennett Greenspan said the acquisition of Arpeggi’s proprietary sequencing software would make it much easier to expand product offerings and reduce turnaround times for testing. Some of the company’s tests take three weeks or more to turn around.
“By having in shop a group of guys with a lot of next-generation sequencing and scoring knowledge, it basically means we can tackle almost anything in the human area,” Greenspan said. “If we want to put together a panel for 40 genes or exomes, we will be able to do it in-house.”
The company had previously used licensed software for sequencing, but it was painfully slow. Using the Arpeggi product will cut down turnarounds as well as the use of reagents, according to Greenspan.
The pricepoints for the firm’s tests won’t go down immediately, but Greenspan indicated the acquisition could accomplish that in the future.
Still Battling Myriad
Meanwhile, Gene By Gene also announced it was joining California testing firm Ambry Genetics to defend against patent infringement litigation brought by Utah-based Myriad Genetics against both firms earlier this summer. Although Myriad’s claim to have held a patent on specific human genes was defeated by the U.S. Supreme Court in June, it immediately sued Ambry and Gene By Gene when both firms announced they would offer gene-based breast cancer tests. Gene By Gene’s announced pricing was a fraction of the $3,000 Myriad charges.
Takeaway: Gene By Gene is making moves to streamline its turnaround times, a crucial development to serve its consumer business.
