Mission:
|
|
|
Contract research organization using convergence of advanced RNAi
gene silencing and high content phenotyping to enhance discovery
and pre-clinical development of novel therapeutics
|
| Workforce (February 2009):
|
|
|
|
34 staff
(full-time, part-time & students)
|
|
900 m2
(7,200 sq feet) labs and offices in the BIOZ research center (Dresden,
Germany)
|
Privately owned GmbH, founded on 26 October 1999
|
|
|
|
Parent Institutes: |
|
|
European Molecular Biology
Laboratory
(EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany)
|
|
|
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell
Biology and Genetics
(MPI-CBG, Dresden, Germany)
|
|
|
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre
(Hinxton, UK)
|
|
|
The BC Cancer Agency (Vancouver,
Canada)
|
|
|
|
Scientific
Founders:
|
|
|
Dr. Christophe J. Echeverri
(lead founder, CEO/CSO)
|
|
|
Prof. Dr. Anthony A. Hyman
(Director at MPI-CBG)
|
|
|
Dr. Pierre Gönczy
(Associate Scientist at ISREC)
|
|
| Started-up with 2 rounds of VC financing, now fully self-sustaining since 2003 |
|
|
|
Financing Round 1A:
September 2000 (€ 3.5 Mio)
|
|
|
Heidelberg Innovation
(Heidelberg, Germany)
|
|
|
TechnoStart (Ludwigsburg,
Germany)
|
|
|
tbg
(Bonn, Germany)
|
|
|
|
Financing Round 1B:
June 2002 (€ 3.5 Mio)
|
|
|
BankInvest
(Copenhagen, Denmark)
|
|
|
EMBL Ventures (Heidelberg,
Germany)
|
|
|
Heidelberg Innovation
(Heidelberg, Germany)
|
|
|
TechnoStart (Ludwigsburg,
Germany)
|
|
|
|
Key clients & partners to date: |
|
|
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge,
MA)
|
|
|
Applied Biosystems/Ambion (Austin, TX)
|
|
|
AstraZeneca (Waltham, MA)
|
|
|
Bayer HealthCare AG
(Leverkusen, Germany; now Bayer-Schering)
|
|
|
Boehringer Ingelheim
(Biberach, Germany)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Instituto de Medicina Molecular (Lisbon, Portugal)
|
|
|
InteRNA Technologies B.V.
(Bilthoven, The Netherlands)
|
|
|
Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany)
|
|
|
Regulus Therapeutics (Carlsbad,
CA)
|
|
|
Schering AG (Berlin, Germany; now Bayer-Schering)
|
|
|
Siena Biotech (Siena,
Italy)
|
Recognized scientific leader in HT-RNAi and High Content screening:
|
|
Pioneering work on convergence of HT-RNAi screening with High Content phenotyping:
|
|
|
Gönczy et al., 2000, Nature 408: 331
Sönnichsen et al., 2005, Nature 434: 462
|
|
Strong publication record in top-tier scientific journals:
|
|
|
Gunsalus et al., 2005, Nature 436: 861
Pelkmans et al., 2005, Nature 436: 78
Echeverri & Perrimon, 2006, Nature Rev. Genetics 7: 373
Echeverri et al., 2006, Nature Methods 3: 777
Gottwein et al., 2007, Nature 450: 1096
Kittler et al., 2007, Nature Methods 4: 337
Rodrigues et al., 2008, Cell Host & Microbes 4: 209
Prudêncio et al., 2008, PLoS Pathogens 4: e1000201
|
