QuantaLife
美國QuantaLife www.quantalife.com
2011年Bio-Rad 1.6億美元收購digital PCR 技術公司QuantaLife
QuantaLife’s history began at the University of California (UC) where Drs.Bill Colston and Fred Milanovich, QuantaLife’s founding CEO and Chairman of the Board, pioneered novel technologies for detecting minute amounts of biological materials. Dr. Colston, Dr. Milanovich and their team were charged with developing wide ranging capabilities to defend the United States against terrorism. Through efforts spanning more than a decade, they developed a series of instruments that, for the first time, integratedhighly accurate PCR assays into systems that were ultimately deployed and continue to provide cost-effective and reliable protection against bio-terrorism for our nations critical infrastructure, post offices,and transportation systems.One of the inventions was a fast, highly accurate emulsion PCR concept that could potentially detect the broadest range of biological pathogens at the highest sensitivity. Drs. Colston and Milanovich realized that this manifestation of emulsion PCR now called Droplet Digital™ PCR also could have important implications in the life sciences and medical diagnostics sector. Driving them was a belief in the elegance of the technology and its power to transform research and diagnostics. Subsequently, with a founding team that included UC colleagues Dr. Ben Hindson, Dr. Kevin Ness and Don Masquelier and business professionals from Sage Canyon Advisors, LLC, the Company’s business advisory partner, they launched QuantaLife in the summer of 2008.
In 2008, the team opened its first facility in Livermore, California, and later moved to Pleasanton, California. Over the next two years, major technological hurdles were cleared and the technology quickly evolved from concept to product. This elegantly simple system precisely measures DNA variations and or messenger RNA and provides absolute quantification (not relative quantification as with real-time PCR), as a digital readout.
That same year, QuantaLife obtained seed financing from the Paladin Capital Group and has subsequently raised additional funds. QuantaLife has placed several early access systems in key research laboratories worldwide and is on schedule for a full product release by mid 2011. Dr. Colston and his team are poised to launch the next generation of PCR, bringing an innovative idea to life.
