RNA-Seq Blog Transcriptome Research & Industry News
from GenomeWeb
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — Roche said today that it has made a strategic investment in nanopore sequencing startup Stratos Genomics and is collaborating to further develop the firm’s sequencing chemistry.
Last month, Seattle-based Stratos disclosed that it had raised $10 million towards a $16.3 million Series B financing round. A Roche spokesperson told GWDN today that Roche contributed an undisclosed portion of that funding, “with additional funds to come pending milestones reached in our agreement.”
Roche researchers will work with Stratos scientists to develop the company’s Sequencing by Expansion method, which converts DNA into larger surrogate molecules, so-called Xpandomers, that are read out by a protein nanopore. To make an Xpandomer, a polymerase links together X-NTPs, building blocks with an expandable hairpin and a reporter molecule.
