OraSure carries up CoreBiome

CoreBiome, a microbial analysis technology spinout of University of Minnesota, was acquired by medical diagnostics kit manufacturer OraSure Technologies for an undisclosed sum on Thursday.
The transaction is expected to be finalised within the coming days.
Founded in 2016, CoreBiome develops research sampling and analysis products for microbiomes, the sum of genetic material which forms microorganism communities in environments such as the human gut.
The products utilise machine learning technology to build genomic profiles of the microbiomes for purposes including human health, agriculture and environmental monitoring.
Following the acquisition, CoreBiome’s underlying technology will be integrated to augment the product line of OraSure’s biological sampling subsidiary, DNA Genotek.
CoreBiome was formed on the back of research conducted by Dan Knights, an associate professor of computer science and engineering in the College of Science and Engineering as well as in the Biotechnology Institute at the College of Biological Sciences.
Knights performed his work alongside Kenneth Beckman, director of University of Minnesota Genomics Center, and Daryl Gohl, the centre’s research and development lead.
CoreBiome previously attracted $550,000 of funding from undisclosed investors in September 2018, according to a regulatory filing, after closing an $800,000 seed round the previous year backed by University of Minnesota’s Discovery Capital fund.
Microbial quality control firm Microbiologics also supplied CoreBiome with seed funding, as did syndicate Gopher Angels and an assortment of unnamed private investors.
Dan Knights, who also leads CoreBiome as CEO, said: “There is a growing need for fast, reproducible and scalable microbiome analysis in many research fields.
“Our goal has been to accelerate discovery of microbiome-based solutions combining genomics and machine learning innovation to help customers leverage that big data and to make world-class microbiome expertise available on-demand.”