Home > Features and Commentary > Success stories > Biomatters eyes bigger slice of US market
by Graeme Kennedy
Auckland scientific software company Biomatters has begun a major expansion with its Geneious DNA profiling and sequencing tool after selling more than 10,000 licenses worldwide since its launch three years ago.
Biomatters CEO Candace Toner
CEO Candace Toner says sales have doubled annually and further growth was expected following the release last month of Geneious Version 5.0, which she describes as faster and more accurate than anything that has come before it – "it is at the cutting edge of technology in this market," she said.
Biomatters will launch Geneious Server in September to meet demand for speed and capacity from large university departments and commercial enterprises with super-computers.
The company plans to open a sales office in New Jersey by the end of this year to grow its share in the US market.
The US currently makes up approximately 50 percent of the company’s sales followed by Europe with 35 percent and Australia-New Zealand accounting for 5 percent to 10 percent of sales.
“New Jersey is right where we need to be,” Ms Toner said.
“We have many customers in the pharmaceutical sector and the world’s leading firms have their headquarters there so it will mean a lot of business for us.”
Geneious enables researchers to quickly and easily analyse genetic data with sequencing and visualisation in a single operation, replacing 1980s computer technology, which involved a complex and lengthy system using up to 30 applications.
“Usability of scientific software has too often been an afterthought,” Ms Toner said, “but Geneious presents the sheer mass of data biologists collect in a highly visual way with industry-leading applications at their fingertips.”
The software can be used in any field of science that depends on the analysis of DNA.
Drug companies, for instance are developing personalised medicines tailored to individuals’ genetic profiles for better results.
Auckland University computational biologist and associate professor Dr Alexei Drummond was one of the founders of the company, which developed its first software - Cheesecake - to manage the breeding and selection of live mice used for laboratory testing.
Ms Toner said thousands of mice were bred for trials but 50 percent could be too closely related to provide meaningful data. Cheesecake halved the number of animals needed for research.
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20 July 2010
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