LEXINGTON, Mass., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- RainDance Technologies, Inc., a provider of innovative droplet-based microfluidic solutions for human health and disease research, today dedicated its new headquarters and operations building and unveiled its new RDT 1000 instrument.
Keynoting the event was Sir Richard Roberts, 2003 Nobel Prize winner for physiology and medicine and Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of New England Biolabs. Chris McNary, President and Chief Executive Officer, RainDance Technologies; Daniel O’Connell, Secretary of Housing and Economic Development, Commonwealth of Massachusetts; and Robert Coughlin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, also spoke at the event.
“The development of new technology has driven the pace of discovery in health and human disease research,” said Sir Richard Roberts. “RainDance technology has the potential to accelerate breakthroughs in genomic research and fulfill the promise of personalized medicine.”
RainDance is among the first companies to relocate to Massachusetts under Governor Deval Patrick’s innovative Life Sciences Initiative. The company cited the initiative as a major factor in moving the company’s operations from Connecticut to Massachusetts.
“Today, our dream of bringing innovative products to market is becoming a reality here in Lexington, as we dedicate this new 28-thousand square foot facility,” said Chris McNary, president and chief executive officer, RainDance Technologies. “We liked what we saw in Massachusetts. Its access to life science talent, state research grants, and the customer base of the greater Boston-Cambridge area were important requirements for our growing company,” said McNary.
RainDance cited Secretary O’Connell, the Governor’s Office, and the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council for making the company’s relocation a smooth and seamless transition.
“Strong public-private partnerships have made Massachusetts a leader in life sciences and personalized medicine with a growing base of companies and research institutions,” said O’Connell. “RainDance will play an important role in continuing that leadership.”
“We are proud to have RainDance Technologies join the impressive list of life sciences companies basing their operations in Massachusetts,” said Coughlin. “Their innovative technology and unique knowledge will add vitality to our biotechnology community.”
During the ceremony, the company unveiled a rendering of the RDT 1000 instrument, the centerpiece of its new Sequence Enrichment solution for the targeted genomic sequencing market.
“Soon, we will be delivering our sequence enrichment solution to early access partners representing some of the nation’s leading genome centers,” said McNary. “This technology will be introduced to the market during the fourth quarter, with commercial launch scheduled for the first quarter of 2009.”
RainDance’s new RainStorm(TM) droplet-based microfluidic technology has broad use in the prediction and prevention of human disease. The simplicity, speed, and capacity of the technology will enable numerous uses in biomedical applications, including genomics research, gene expression analysis, compound screening, and biomarker detection.
About RainDance Technologies, Inc.
RainDance Technologies is a provider of innovative droplet-based microfluidic solutions for human health and disease research. The simplicity and speed of the company’s exciting new technology platform enable researchers to design experiments in ways that were previously unaffordable or unimaginable.
The company’s technology produces picoliter-volume droplets at a rate of 10 million per hour. Each droplet is the functional equivalent of an individual test tube and can contain a single molecule, reaction, or cell. This versatile technology can adapt highly referenced assays for high-speed workflows with minimized process-induced bias or error.
RainDance’s initial application will focus on the targeted resequencing of the human genome -- one of the fastest-growing segments of the $1 billion DNA sequencing market. This application will enable the high-resolution analysis of genetic variation between individuals and populations at a level unmatched by current methodology.
RainDance was founded in 2004 by scientists from Harvard University; the Medical Research Centre in Cambridge, England; and the ESPCI in Paris. The promise of this technology has attracted an outstanding Scientific Advisory Board. RainDance advisers include three Nobel Prize winners: Jean-Marie Lehn (Chemistry, 1987), Aaron Klug (Chemistry, 2002), and Sir Richard Roberts (Physiology or Medicine, 1993), as well as Sir Gregory Winter, joint head of the British Division of Protein and Nucleic Acids Chemistry at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.
For more information, please visit www.raindancetech.com.
CONTACT: For corporate questions, contact: Steve Becker, +1-781-861-6300,
beckers@raindancetechnologies.com; for technical questions, contact: Jeremy
Lambert, +1-781-861-6300, lambertj@raindancetechnologies.com, both of
RainDance Technologies
Web site: http://www.raindancetech.com/
