By Elaine Rigoli
Tampa, Fla., March 15 - Helicos BioSciences announced that it secured new investments totaling $40 million from a syndicate of venture capital firms, in support of the company's development of "true single molecule sequencing" technologies and techniques.
The financing was provided by Helicos BioSciences' current investors, which include Flagship Ventures, Atlas Ventures, Highland Capital, MPM Capital and Versant Ventures.
The latest funding follows an initial investment of $27 million by the same syndicate of investors, made at the company's founding in February 2004.
"Up to now, genetic researchers investigating DNA have been hampered and limited by tools and techniques that require amplification, as opposed to direct interrogation of the actual molecules themselves," commented Stanley N. Lapidus, president and chief executive officer of Helicos, in a news release. "This results in unacceptable data loss, sample preparation complexity, amplification biases and errors which hamper accuracy and throughput.
"True Single Molecule Sequencing shatters these limitations, and enables scientists to pursue their investigations via direct interrogation of the actual molecule via a simple, streamlined sample preparation protocol."
Helicos develops instruments and reagents for the high-speed sequencing of DNA and RNA with the highest possible sensitivity. The company is based in Cambridge, Mass.
| Issuer: | Helicos BioSciences
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| Issue: | Venture capital
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| Amount: | $40 million
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| Investors: | Flagship Ventures, Atlas Ventures, Highland Capital, MPM Capital, Versant Ventures
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| Announcement date: | March 15
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