Dave Gray

J2 Ventures is excited to lead the seed investment in Parallel Fluidics, the fastest microfluidic device manufacturer in the world! 🚀 Alongside Matt Blodgett (Praxis Ventures), Sebastian Caliri (8VC), and Larry Lukis (Protolabs founder and retired Chairman), we’re supporting Joshua G. and Andy Harris in their mission to revolutionize the scientific discovery process with the first on-demand microfluidic manufacturing platform. Microfluidics is transforming diagnostics, drug discovery, precision medicine, sequencing, and cell therapy, enabling tests at a microscopic scale for unprecedented speed, precision, and throughput. Parallel Fluidics is set to overcome design and supply chain barriers in this $32B market, projected to reach $117B by 2031. This $7M seed round will drive the expansion of Parallel Fluidics' advanced hardware and software solutions, enabling rapid design and production capabilities for researchers across life sciences. Congratulations to the entire Parallel Fluidics team! We’re excited to support your journey as you pave the way for scientific teams to accelerate innovation and discovery. #FundingAnnouncement #LifeSciences #Microfluidics #Innovation #Healthcare #VentureCapital

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Learn more about the transformative potential of biobetters in this recent article featuring Ulrike Herbrand, PhD: https://bit.ly/3zBQopM

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Bruker to Acquire NanoString Technologies, Inc. with $392.6M Winning Bid More than two months after filing for Chapter 11, NanoString Technologies has found a buyer in Bruker, which will acquire substantially all the bankrupt company’s assets for approximately $392.6 million cash, plus assumption of liabilities, after winning a competitive auction. Bruker won the auction, held Tuesday, by increasing its earlier qualifying bid with a revised offer that was 78% above the $220 million offered by healthcare investment firm Patient Square Capital. As a global leader in the life science analytical instrument industry, Bruker is uniquely positioned to ensure ongoing customer access to NanoString’s innovations,” Brad Gray, NanoString’s president and CEO, said in a statement. Bruker tops GEN’s most recent A-List of five public companies among the Top 10 Spatial Biology Companies. In snapping up NanoString, Bruker signaled its intent to expand within spatial biology, a field the Billerica, MA-based buyer entered in 2020 when it bought Canopy Biosciences for an undisclosed sum. A year later, it made an undisclosed majority investment in Acuity Spatial Genomics that enabled the company to launch.

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For everyone working on antibody charge variant analysis, you won’t want to miss this webinar! Chris Heger, Ph.D. and Michael Piazza, Ph.D. will show you how two innovative products, Alto from Nicoya & MauriceFlex from Bio-Techne, have teamed up to tackle charge variant analysis. Register below!

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Over the weekend I was thinking (as one does 🤪) about Illumina moats. A clear sign that they're less effective than they've been historically is the traction that Element Biosciences has in the benchtop space, and MGI's success in overcoming Illumina's long held IP moat. I've heard that concern aboutthis problem drove Illumina's focus on vertically integrating via the GRAIL acquisition; I think it's fair to say that didn't work both because of regulators and it wasn't a real thing. So what's a monopoly to do? Obviously try and catch next the week wave - in my opinion that's proteomics sequencing - but that's going to take a lot of time and investment and technology risk. What can be done right now to shore up the moat as it's at immediate risk? One idea would be to license its core SBS technology to other life science companies. Some of the pros and cons: PROS: - Lets OtherCo's do the vertical integration. A great example of this is what Thermo Fisher Scientific has done with Genexus - built a clinical grade sample to answer system around Ion Torrent technology. Illumina has nothing like this because it doesn't have the extraordinary breadth of IVD experience and technologies that Thermo brought to the table. Why not license SBS to companies with these capabilities such as Danaher Corporation, QIAGEN and Roche? - Flexible high margin business model. Sure at one end of the licensing spectrum is royalties with 100% margin but low revenue, but there also the option of selling consumables. The seed for that model can be seen in the new MiSeq: all the complexity/IP is in the consumable (CMOS, fluidics, etc), very little in the instrument. Perfect for partnerships - you guys build the razors and we'll build the razorblades. - Licensing creates amazing moats as it turns potential large-company competitors into customers. It's a win-win for those customers: they get access to a constantly improving low risk NGS technology while being able to focus on their true value added, which is in non-NGS things. - I'm guessing this wouldn't be a problem for regulators - they would see it as a good thing as Illumina is sharing it's IP with others which feels anti-monopolist. CONS: - Potential for cannibalizing Illumina sales with licensee sales. This requires careful choice of licensees and limiting their field of use e.g. licensing SBS to Qiagen to only build a clinical sample to answer. And maybe picking winners here would be an anti-trust issue? Dunno. - Leakage of IP to licensees - Other? Struggling a little for a business analogy there. Kind of like Arm: a true platform with a great moat and scalable business model; customers for sure build vertically integrated solutions around their IP. Any other pro/con suggestions or business analogies?

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Personal shoutout to the folks at Intra-Cellular Therapies who just announced a $132 per share buyout offer from Johnson & Johnson Livingston Securities played a small but important role as a part of the syndicate for the company's #directlisting - At the time, it was an innovative way to go public - proving that the traditional VC/IPO path isn't the only way to get listed on the Nasdaq. Important products & therapies came to market, patient investors were rewarded, and significant wealth was created, and this announcement is a vindication for #entrepreneurs and #financial professionals who try to think outside the box. #innovation #betterhealthcarecheaper #mentalhealth #wellness #neurotech #directlisting #publicmarkets #biotechmergers #intracellular #johnsonandjohnson NYSE Forbes BiotechNews & Life Sciences

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As we approach a potential vote in the United States Senate, now is the time for #biotech leaders to stand up for reputable #CDMOs in China like WuXi AppTec. The #biosecure act is misguided and politically motivated in an election year. Trying to discredit companies that have become trusted members of the US #biopharma ecosystem and key contributors to our R&D programs based on unsubstantiated and unvalidated allegations is disgraceful. What is a “biotechnology company of concern?” Biotechnology Innovation Organization John F. Crowley

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Jason Gardner, Flagship CEO-Partner & CEO of #FlagshipFounded Ampersand Biomedicines discusses what drew him to Flagship and its ecosystem, leveraging data and AI with Ampersand's AND-Platform™, and why paranoid optimism is a key part of the culture at Flagship in this #BusinessofBiotech episode with Matthew Pillar. ⬇

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Today is my first anniversary at Berkeley Lights - PhenomeX - Bruker Cellular Analysis. In the past year, the only constant was the deepened appreciation of the immense power our #Beacon platform brings to our brilliant and courageous customers - #Beacon brings Life to Single Cell What does that mean? Well, anniversaries bring sentiment to us. Today our junior high daughter also received her SAT score. She was hugely disappointed and distraught. She felt that single performance metric might mean the doors shutting to her dream colleges. So how do admission officers look at these kids’ metrics when they choose from sometimes 300,000 applications to identify the kids they can confidently predict if they fit into their educational system and may become society’s future pillar of humanity’s success???? One admission officer shared with us that what they try to do is to recreate and appreciate who each student is what their journey was and how that journey led them to become who they are - to bring that deep understanding of that candidate, they want to see the trajectory of their GPA over four years, why they chose certain extra curriculum activities, what they learned from those activities and how in turn they impacted and shaped who they are. These admission officers try to connect the dots so they have a full appreciation of who the students are as humans. A single metric of SAT doesn’t cut it. The difficult job as an admission officer is no different from our scientists who try to find the cells that can become the best killer CAR or T cells to carry on the important job of curing cancer. No different from trying to find the cell carrying the autoantibody that is causing autoimmune disease in patients. No different in trying to identify the convalescent patients’ few super power immune cells that made them resistant to nasty infection. #Beacon brings the journey of those cells to life so scientists can see the full picture of each cell they study so they can predict which ones are the best candidates to do the difficult job. Beacon does that by being the only platform the can precisely control movement of single cells or beads to enable our scientists create their own single cell experiments Beacon does exactly that by providing the highest information content in real time with multi-modal parameters monitoring THE SAME CELL! And every rare cell from the patient and tens of thousands of them at the same time. So proud of the team that made such powerful platform driving science and innovation for next generation therapy development. Don’t just use SAT to predict a students future - don’t use just genomics or just cell surface market or just killing to predict T cell function. use #Beacon! #brukercellularanalysis.com see publications revealing the critical science being done

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Think about all the novel chemistries innovated over the last century, and how they've helped to create huge industries. And realize, there is so much more to discover. Here's a recent example by TDK Electronics. A new material with 100 times higher energy density! What a breakthrough in energy storage and electronics industries. Now, think about harnessing Generative-AI to generate new chemistries! Yes. Exactly that. A real game changer. At Projini | Generative Chemistry we start by addressing the industry with the highest impact on food security, sustainability and climate. We generate new AI-based pesticides! Safe, and EPA-compliant by design.

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Exciting Opportunity for Innovators at the Crossroads of AI and Chemistry! I am thrilled to announce the Standard Industries Chemical Innovation Challenge: Advancing AI-Assisted Molecular Synthesis, brought to you by Standard Industries and W. R. Grace & Co. This is a call to action for all startups and innovators at the intersection of AI and chemical manufacturing. This challenge represents a unique opportunity to impact an industry at the cutting edge of technology and chemistry. We encourage all eligible startups focused on chemistry AI to apply and bring your innovative ideas to the forefront of chemical manufacturing. Why Participate? 🏆 Prize: The winner will receive a whopping $1.4 million for the best use of AI in transforming fine chemical production processes. 📅 Deadline Extension: Submissions are now due by May 10th – more time to polish your innovative solutions! Let’s innovate and shape the future of chemical industries together! #AI #Chemistry #InnovationChallenge #StartupOpportunity 🔗 https://lnkd.in/g956b4zf Let’s transform the future together! Standard Industries, a leader in the global industrial sector, together with its business unit W. R. Grace & Co., renowned for its specialty chemicals and materials, are seeking groundbreaking solutions in AI-assisted molecular synthesis. The challenge aims to revolutionize the way chemicals are produced, enhancing efficiency and sustainability. Beth Xie Stefan Wan Gloria Chyr Plug and Play New Materials & Packaging

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🚨TOMORROW, on November 19, at 11 AM EST, my Bruker colleagues will discuss how #SolidStateNMR can investigate the structural changes in #battery materials and support the development of next-generation batteries through advanced research solutions in the free webinar ‘The Science of Batteries’ 👇 #NMR #Battery #BatteryResearch

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More and more talk about Pb-212 being a realistic alternative to Ac-225 as an alpha emitter in RLT. Great to see!

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Proud to announce our #SBIR Phase I award with the United States Air Force through AFWERX focused on combating dehydration and heat stress with our wearable biosensor, #ConnectedHydration. Connected Hydration was first brought to market to protect frontline field workers, or “industrial athletes." The AFWERX and SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) programs help address the United States Department of the Air Force's (DAF) most pressing challenges. Learn more about our work: https://lnkd.in/eNVcEW-p #innovation #Safety #technology #military #wearables #defense #wearabletech #healthtech #digitalhealth #healthtechnology #airforce #army #navy Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

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The #biosecure act is bad legislation and anti-competitive and will force US #biotech companies to abandon strong and honest #CDMO partners without making us more secure. Longstanding, productive drug-discovery collaborations will inevitably be compromised by an ill-conceived initiative — all for short-term political gain. Patients in need of innovative medicines are the ones that will lose out; I urge leaders in the #biotech industry to stand up and be counted in opposition to this proposed legislation.

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Following up on the excitement of the launch of IRO last week. We can now share highlights of the biological data CTMC has produced as they used our pre-commercial instrument. Compared to their current manufacturing process, and across 9 runs carried out on 2 different sites IRO has demonstrated: 🧫 A higher average transduction efficiency of 69% vs 45% 🧫 Consistently higher cell yields 🧫 A rapid process transfer: taking just weeks, rather than the industry's usual 6-9 months This just starts to show the potential of the IRO platform to address some of the challenges in the manufacturing of these therapies. #automatingbetterbiology #ISCT2024 #celltherapy #manufacturingbrighterfutures

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There is no better way to start a new year than with the latest Application Note on Raman Imaging and Correlative Techniques in Life Science.

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Dive into the world of battery technology with Heather Platt! From lithium-ion to the future of solid-state and sodium-ion batteries, Heather shares her expert insights on the evolution and future of energy storage. Read the full article “The Chemistry of Building a Better Battery”  https://lnkd.in/g55cXMD8

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