Human Longevity Inc., the J. Craig Venter outfit dedicated to extending human life by plumbing the genome for clues on health and age-related wellness, just acquired Cypher Genomics – a software company that interprets next-generation sequencing data. The companies, both based in San Diego, didn’t disclose the terms of the deal.
HLI will absorb much of Cypher Genomics’ staff, taking on its CEO and cofounder Ashley Van Zeeland as head of HLI’s pediatrics business. HLI was launched last year with $70 million in funding, and aims to sequence 1 million genomes by 2020. This is its first acquisition.
“Cypher Genomics has created important automated and scalable genome interpretation technology informed by additional expertise in genetics and biology that we believe will be invaluable to HLI’s business,” Venter said in a statement. Notably, Cypher has also built out a biomarker discovery platform.
Both companies are based in San Diego, and Cypher Genomics has deep-running ties to area organizations like Illumina, Scripps Translational Science Institute and Sequenom, as well as Celgene and Lockheed Martin. With the latter, Cypher Genomics has been selected as a finalist to help Genomics England with gene interpretation for its 100,000 Genomes Project.
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