Genome sequencing co Ultima Genomics raises $600m
3 min readGenome sequencing organization Ultima Genomics has appear out of stealth and introduced $600 million in funding. Founded in 2016 by its Israeli CEO Gilad Almogy, the enterprise has 350 personnel including 50 in Israel at improvement facilities in Rehovot and Hod Hasharon, and remarkably has managed to avoid any leaks of info from its employees, investors and growth centers.

The organization has now disclosed that it has designed a sequencing equipment, which it statements, backed up by investigation set to be released in major scientific periodicals, will allow genome sequencing for $100, in contrast with the $500-600 it charges working with its rival Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN). In addition, Ultima Genomics statements that its genomic sequencing is a lot quicker and further – in other words, it provides extra facts about the genome, a lot more speedily.

The benefits of these enhancements, which are permitted via patents that the organization has not still disclosed, are primarily in two instructions. Via this technology, the business estimates and hopes, it will be attainable to realize genome sequencing even down to one cells, and so diagnose sicknesses even previously than at present, mostly cancer. In addition, sequencing that is cheaper, quicker and richer in information and facts, will make it possible for much more quickly progress in projects that look at the genetics of the genuine morbidity of massive numbers of people today, in get to map the genes concerned in several diseases.

Sources at Ultima Genomics say that the rationale for the secrecy in excess of the yrs was the motivation to arrive at the point where by the enterprise could verify its product or service, just before creating any bulletins. The corporation also preferred not to stir up its rivals, predominantly Illumina.

Ultima Genomics CEO and founder Gilad Almogy is a graduate of the IDF’s Talpiot science and leadership program. Almogy is these days resident in the US. He was a senior vice president at Utilized Resources right before founding solar vitality firm Cogenra Solar in 2009, which was obtained by SunPower in 2015. In late 2016, Almogy started Ultima.

Almogy mentioned, “DNA is nature’s storage media and the instruction set for each individual residing organism, still with present-day systems, we can’t entry that details at the scale required to definitely fully grasp elaborate biology. Our architecture is meant for radical scaling, and the $100 genome is basically the very first instance of what it can produce. We are committed to repeatedly push down the charge of genomic information until finally it is routinely utilised in each and every portion of the health care technique.”




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Ultima Genomics CSO Doron Lipson included, “Researchers and clinicians constantly make tradeoffs between the breadth, depth, and frequency of genomic data they obtain. By beating the limits of regular subsequent-era sequencing systems, scientists can now style experiments and clinical assays that had been formerly difficult.”

1 of the 1st traders in Ultima Genomics was Israeli billionaire and Check Place founder Marius Nacht, who is also a graduate of the IDF’s Talpiot software. Nqcht established the aMoon healthtech and everyday living science investment decision fund, originally investing his individual property in advance of getting an impartial fund, which in new many years lifted a $750 million development fund. aMoon has also invested in Ultima Genomics.

Other buyers in Ultima Genomics contain D1 Cash, Andreessen Horowitz, General Atlantic, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed, Playground International, and Founders Fund.

Whole disclosure: Marius Nacht is the previous lifetime associate of Anat Agmon, portion of the managing shareholders in “Globes.” They are involved in a personalized and financial dispute

Released by Globes, Israel enterprise news – en.globes.co.il – on June 2, 2022.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2022.


