Genome sequencing company Ultima Genomics has appear out of stealth and introduced $600 million in funding. Established in 2016 by its Israeli CEO Gilad Almogy, the corporation has 350 personnel including 50 in Israel at enhancement facilities in Rehovot and Hod Hasharon, and remarkably has managed to protect against any leaks of information and facts from its workforce, traders and progress centers.

The business has now disclosed that it has created a sequencing equipment, which it claims, backed up by research established to be posted in foremost scientific periodicals, permits genome sequencing for $100, as opposed with the $500-600 it prices working with its rival Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN). In addition, Ultima Genomics statements that its genomic sequencing is speedier and further – in other text, it presents far more data about the genome, additional immediately.

The rewards of these enhancements, which are permitted by patents that the company has not but revealed, are largely in two directions. Via this technological know-how, the business estimates and hopes, it will be probable to reach genome sequencing even down to single cells, and thus diagnose health problems even earlier than at existing, primarily cancer. In addition, sequencing that is more cost-effective, faster and richer in data, will permit substantially a lot quicker progress in initiatives that examine the genetics of the genuine morbidity of massive quantities of men and women, in get to map the genes associated in many diseases.

Resources at Ultima Genomics say that the explanation for the secrecy around the several years was the motivation to achieve the point exactly where the company could demonstrate its products, ahead of producing any bulletins. The corporation also most well-liked not to stir up its rivals, largely Illumina.

Ultima Genomics CEO and founder Gilad Almogy is a graduate of the IDF’s Talpiot science and management program. Almogy is now resident in the US. He was a senior vice president at Applied Supplies right before founding photo voltaic energy enterprise Cogenra Photo voltaic in 2009, which was acquired by SunPower in 2015. In late 2016, Almogy started Ultima.

Almogy said, “DNA is nature’s storage media and the instruction established for just about every living organism, however with present systems, we won’t be able to entry that information at the scale desired to truly realize advanced biology. Our architecture is meant for radical scaling, and the $100 genome is merely the first instance of what it can supply. We are committed to constantly generate down the expense of genomic information until it is routinely used in each and every portion of the health care method.”




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Ultima Genomics CSO Doron Lipson included, “Experts and clinicians consistently make tradeoffs involving the breadth, depth, and frequency of genomic info they collect. By beating the restrictions of regular future-technology sequencing systems, scientists can now design and style experiments and clinical assays that had been formerly extremely hard.”

One particular of the initial investors in Ultima Genomics was Israeli billionaire and Examine Position founder Marius Nacht, who is also a graduate of the IDF’s Talpiot program. Nqcht founded the aMoon healthtech and lifestyle science expense fund, originally investing his individual property right before turning into an unbiased fund, which in new yrs raised a $750 million development fund. aMoon has also invested in Ultima Genomics.

Other buyers in Ultima Genomics include D1 Funds, Andreessen Horowitz, General Atlantic, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed, Playground World wide, and Founders Fund.

Complete disclosure: Marius Nacht is the previous lifestyle partner of Anat Agmon, portion of the managing shareholders in “Globes.” They are associated in a individual and economic dispute

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

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