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Mass High Tech February 23, 2004
Device firm readies
for prime time One of the key locales of the TV series “CSI” is the forensic lab to which police take blood samples and other fluid evidence. Will scripts be sent back to Rewrite if the products of Network Biosystems Inc. become ubiquitous? The Woburn company soon will be offering a mobile kit that police can operate in an on-site van. Key advantage: Identification of blood samples will take four hours instead of five days. “One of the advantages of our tools is they are faster and more cost-effective,” said Paul Pyzowski, chief executive officer of the small private company. “There are several uses, but in this case it could help a crime-scene team because evidence can be lost or destroyed (if too much time elapses).” Forensics is just a part of the puzzle for this company founded in 2000 as genoMEMS, a name that was changed about a year ago. The company’s large-scale biochip products offer improved performance for gene sequencing as well as crime-fighting. The company’s initial products were developed after MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research invested $12 million. Since that time, unnamed strategic investors have put in an additional $2.5 million. The company is focused on replacement of a dominant technology used in DNA sequencing — capillary technology. Large-scale biochips deliver major improvements in cost and performance for the life sciences market as well as for law-enforcement agencies, the company claims. DeNova, a biochip system that handles large-scale genome sequencing for the research and pharmaceutical industries, is on the market now. To sell this product into the broadest marketplace, Network Biosystems has entered a partnership with Shimadzu Corp., a $2 billion instrumentation company in Japan. Company officials declined to name customers for DeNova. “Collaboration is vital if we are to continue providing strong solutions in proteomics and genomics,” said Tetsuo Ichikawa, chairman of Shimadzu, in a statement. “This partnership … means we can apply microfabrication technology to significantly accelerate the progress of biotechnology research.” Another product, dubbed GeneBench, is portable and will be marketed initially to forensics specialists looking to analyze DNA at crime scenes. It could also be used by military units seeking to identify certain toxins, such as anthrax. Network Biosystems has received contracts from government agencies for this product. It also has processed orders from private corporations, but executives declined to name them. Pyzowski started Network Biosystems with a push from Whitehead and seems to have found a prosperous niche. “The company has achieved unprecedented progress since MIT-Whitehead initially invested $12 million,” said Gary Magnant, a biotech executive and investor who recently became active with the company. Perhaps the company’s most heady day came last March, when Attorney General John Ashcroft held up one of the company’s DNA forensic chips at a press conference and announced his congressional request for billions of dollars to build the nation’s DNA database. Funds that Network Biosystems have banked have gone toward developing a headquarters that includes a microfabrication/manufacturing facility along with a biology lab and office space. The company is looking for another $6 million to help it with upcoming product launches. “We’re
in a fortunate situation, because the science and products we are working
on appear to be just about ready for prime time,” Pyzowski said.
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