Lumora, a UK-based molecular diagnostics developer spun out of University of Cambridge, has sold off its nucleic acid purification platform to pharmaceuticals and diagnostics developer Roche.
Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Founded in 2004, Lumora claims it has reduced the time isolating necessary nucleic acids such as DNA or RNA for testing.
Roche hopes to integrate the approach into the sequencing process it uses for research purposes.
Lumora had raised $8.91m in total before the deal, according to deals database PitchBook, including £2.2m ($3.5m) from a two-tranche series C round in 2011 and 2013.
Cambridge Enterprise, the tech transfer office of University of Cambridge, contributed to the second £677,000 series C tranche in 2013 alongside Catapult Venture Managers and Tate and Lyle Ventures, the corporate VC arm of food ingredients manufacturer Tate and Lyle.
Catapult led the initial May 2011 series C tranche for £1.5m with a £1m commitment, while Tate and Lyle contributed £500,000.
Laurence Tisi, CEO and co-founder of Lumora, said: “We are extremely pleased to have concluded this sale to Roche, the world’s leading diagnostics company.
“Having successfully developed the heat elution [a process by which one material is extracted from another] technology, the next step is to see its use expanded globally, and Roche is the perfect partner for ensuring its widespread adoption.”
