Agilent Technologies acquires Computational Biology Corp.
Agilent Technologies Inc. announced its acquisition of Computational biology Corp., a biotech pioneer in ChIP-on-chip, a microarray-based technique for understanding gene regulation in disease. The acquisition gives Agilent exclusive access to the critical patent and intellectual property for ChIP-on-chip analysis that will enable the company to provide unique microarray solutions for disease research, drug discovery and drug development.
Computational Biology Corp., based in Cambridge, Mass., was founded by Drs. Richard Young and David Gifford of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and biotechnology executive Dr. Heidi Wyle. Young is a professor at the prestigious Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, a leader in the study of gene regulatory networks, and the primary inventor of ChIP-on-chip. Gifford, a professor in MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department, is an expert in computational biology and in the development of software algorithms for biological analysis. Both will remain professors at MIT while consulting with Agilent to support the ongoing development of commercial solutions for ChIP-on-chip.
Within six months of the acquisition, Agilent plans to open a center in Cambridge to enable close collaboration with Young and Gifford, Whitehead and MIT, as well as other collaborators and customers in the region. It will include an Agilent demonstration center for genomics, proteomics and informatics.
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