Genting Berhad's investment will enable the company to develop its Genalysis point-of-care genomic diagnostic product line.
Imperial College London spin-out DNA Electronics (DNAe), the developer of semiconductor solutions for real-time DNA and RNA detection, has secured the necessary funding to develop its Genalysis product. The funding was raised from its principal shareholder, Edith Grove, a wholly owned subsidiary of Genting Berhad, with the company founders also contributing.
Edith Grove’s further investment in the company forms part of a growing portfolio of cutting-edge healthcare companies for Genting Berhad. Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Malaysia-based conglomerate Genting, joined the DNAe board in November 2008.
The company, which is currently a research and development and licensing business, will use the funding to become a full-fledged product company, offering point-of-care solutions for time-critical medical applications. Its principal product will be Genalysis, a semiconductor-based sequencing system which performs fast, simple and multiplexed DNA and RNA tests, looking for viruses, primers, or determining response times to drugs, among other things. As this does away with the need for a lab – the test can be run from a USB stick – the product enables a sample to answer process of under 30 minutes.
Founded in 2003, DNAe is a spin-out from Imperial College London, based on research by Chris Toumazou, who invented the company’s core technology that allows CMOS transistors to be switched on and off with DNA – the key invention enabling semiconductor-based sequencing.
Chris Toumazou, founder and CEO, said: “I would like to thank Genting Berhad for their continued strong support of DNAe, which reflects their confidence in our strategy and capability. Our label-free semiconductor sequencing technology is now proven across thousands of laboratories worldwide, through the company’s non-exclusive license to Ion Torrent, now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific. I am excited about embarking on this new chapter of growth and development of the company and making personalised genomic healthcare a tangible reality.”