UK-based biopharmaceutical company Population Genetics secured £3.6m ($5.7) in financing on Tuesday last week from investors including Syngenta Ventures, the corporate venturing division of Switzerland-based agribusiness corporation Syngenta.
In addition to the funding, Population has signed a research agreement with Syngenta’s biotechnology division aimed at finding valid ways to use Population’s technology in plant breeding studies.
Joining Syngenta in the series B round were venture capital (VC) firm Auriga Partners, private equity firm Beringea, medical research foundation The Wellcome Trust, and Compass Genetics Investors, an investment partnership formed by Population Genetics’ founders. All four are existing investors.
Population Genetics closed its series A round in May 2009, by which time it had raised £5.8m from Auriga, Beringea, Compass Genetics and Noble Fund Managers, a VC firm later rebranded as Amati Global Investors. The Wellcome Trust meanwhile provided Population’s seed funding in 2005 through its Technology Transfer division.
Population is currently using next generation DNA sequencers to conduct tests on patient groups suffering from both Alzheimer’s disease, and various types of cancer. This includes a study being jointly-conducted with pharaceutical company Quintiles attempting to locate genome-wide association in renal cancer patients.
Michiel van Lookeren Campagne, head of biotechnology at Syngenta, said: "We are pleased to be able to work with Population Genetics to extend the use of their novel technology for human diagnostics into the agricultural field. This technology will allow us to simultaneously characterise the molecular basis for complex multigenic traits across very large number of lines in one test tube. This will increase the rate of innovation in our breeding programs while reducing the cost and complexity of the analysis."