BioNano Genomics Raises $10 Million Financing To Advance Irys System For Human Genome Analysis

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- BioNano Genomics announced today a $10 million financing to support the ongoing development and commercialization of the Irys^TM System for human genome analysis.  Current investors, Battelle Ventures, Domain Associates, Gund Investment Corporation, participated in the financing.

"BioNano Genomics has made significant progress in commercializing the Irys System first in the U.S. and then in China and Europe, to expand the global access to the power of its long-read capabilities," said Tracy Warren, general partner of Battelle Ventures. "We continue our support of BioNano so that scientists and clinicians will have better tools to investigate the clinical significance of genome variation."

"We have demonstrated that the Irys System can scale to larger, more complex genomes, including human," said Erik Holmlin, Ph.D., president and CEO of Bionano Genomics.  "Our scientific achievements combined with this new financing pave the way to expand our commercialization efforts and the capabilities of Irys."

The Irys System allows direct observation of native genomic structure through imaging of extremely long molecules. This capability enables detection of structural variation and significantly improves genome assemblies and phasing haplotypes.  This demonstrated ability of Irys to scale to large genomes is key to its utility throughout human genomics and epigenomics for biomedical disease research and diagnostic development.

About Irys

Irys makes it possible to routinely and accurately detect genomic structural variation and to finish genome assemblies. The fully automated Irys benchtop instrument uses the IrysChip to uncoil and confine long DNA molecules in proprietary Nanochannel Arrays™ where they are uniformly linearized in a highly parallel display for high-resolution, single-molecule imaging. Irys does not employ DNA fragmentation or amplification, which are typical with next-generation sequencing. The result is sequence information over extremely long "reads" ranging from hundreds of kilobases to a megabase, where the sample's valuable structural information is preserved. Irys makes it possible for researchers to directly observe structural variants including replications, deletions, translocations and inversions.

About BioNano Genomics

Headquartered in San Diego, BioNano Genomics is delivering an altogether better way of gaining a fully informed understanding of genomes. The Company's platform provides researchers and clinicians the most comprehensive, organized and actionable picture of a genome with unprecedented insights into how the individual components of genomes are ordered, arranged, and interact with each other. BioNano Genomics works with institutions in life science, translational research, molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine. The Company is supported by private investors and grant funding from genomics programs at federal agencies, including the NIH and NIST-ATP.

www.BioNanoGenomics.com

Notes: BioNano Genomics is a trademark of BioNano Genomics, Inc. Any other names of actual companies, organizations, entities, products or services may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE BioNano Genomics

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