Pacific Biosciences of California Inc (PACB)

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Menlo Park: Biotech firm's invention puts it at the forefront of DNA-related research
By Kevin KellyDaily News Staff Writer
POSTED: 02/05/2016 06:00:00 AM PST0 COMMENTS
A biotech company in Menlo Park is getting widespread attention through a cutting-edge tool it has developed for genetic research.

Pacific Biosciences, which operates in a historically industrial section of Belle Haven, markets a tool that is essentially a high-powered microscope for analyzing DNA.

The tool, whose most recent iteration looks a bit like a vending machine with an iPad for a keypad, gives researchers the ability to perform long DNA reads in the fields of human biomedical research, microbiology and plant and animal sciences.

For instance, the company's tools were used to map a Fragile X syndrome mutation, something researchers previously couldn't do. Fragile X is a common form of cognitive impairment in humans, more common in men than women, with roughly 1 in every 3,000 males born severely mentally impaired. Prior to Pacific Biosciences' RS II System and the newer Sequel System -- basically a 2.0 version of RS II -- which began shipping in December, scientists could only point to the spot on the human genome where the defect was occcuring.

"It's unsequenceable with any other technology," said Jonas Korlach, chief scientific officer for Pacific Biosciences, citing the tool's unique ability to read long sections of genetic code at once. "Fragile X (has) a repeat region that's very long ... and if you don't have the long read, you can't figure it out."

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The fully mapped mutation, announced by a UC Davis School of Medicine scientist in 2013, could allow quicker and better screening procedures for Fragile X and other similar genetic disorders.

More recently, the company's technology is being used to study how influenza spreads through a population, in the hopes of creating more effective vaccines. Like the Fragile X researchers before them, scientists from New York University and the University of Hong Kong are using Pacific Biosciences' tool for its singular ability to study long lines of genetic code, allowing minor variants in flu patients to be studied for the first time.

"We can look for a broader range of the type of variation from one individual to the other than other technologies that we compete with," said Pacific Biosciences CEO Michael Hunkapiller. "We have a more complete database, in terms of the changes being looked at. .... There's so much variation from one individual to another, and so much that is dependent on what your environment is.

"An example is there are as many cells in your body that ain't human as there are that are and (microorganisms) have a big influence on your health ... and when you have cancer, those cells can get really messed up."

The tool is also being used in the UC Santa Cruz-led Genome 10K Project, a conservation-minded effort that aims to collect DNA sequences representing the genomes of 10,000 vertebrate species, roughly one for every vertebrate genus.

The RS II and Sequel tools use technology that speed-reads through millions of molecules to find pertinent information. The newer Sequel, which was launched in October, is one-third the size and half the cost of the RS II, which was developed seven years ago and first entered the market in 2011. Hunkapiller said the Sequel can essentially take a 50-million piece jigsaw puzzle and turns it into a 50-piece puzzle.

"If you think of a genome, it's got 3 billion base pairs times two -- one from the mother, one from the father," he said. "You can't read that from one end to the other, there's no technology that does that right now, so you have to break it apart into a lot of little pieces, understand what the sequence of each of those little pieces and then you have to put it all back together and create a whole.

"The thing that our technology does is that it allows the scientists to not break the pieces of DNA into such small elements, so it's easy to take a complex situation and put it back together."

The more compact, lower-cost Sequel is propelling the company forward.

The company last month announced it has already received orders for 49 Sequels. With just 160 systems currently in place worldwide, that counts as a large leap.

Roche Holding AG, a Swiss health-care conglomerate that partners with Pacific Biosciences for in-vitro diagnostics has in recent weeks been exploring a possible acquisition of the company, Reuters reported Tuesday. Many analysts, including Economic News Daily, are suggesting Pacific Biosciences' stock as one to watch in 2016. The biotech's shares are anticipated to rise by 30 percent over the next five years.

"There are now over 1,000 research papers that have been published using this technology, (which is) what you set out to do as a method developer," said Korlach, citing advances in understanding how organisms work to create methane and how particular fungi attack crops. "The whole hope is that it's useful for a lot of people to ultimately improve the human condition. ... We want to improve health care, we want to figure out how to feed 9 billion people in 2050, we want to prevent infectious disease so you don't have to worry about the flu anymore."

Pacific Biosciences is planning to move to a new site at the end of 2017. It operates out of five buildings at Menlo Science & Technology Park, which was purchased by Facebook last February. Pacific Biosciences has received a use permit from the city of Menlo Park to convert a building at 1315 O'Brien Drive for a new headquarters, one with 8,000 additional square feet of workspace. As part of a deal with Facebook, the biotech is giving up two five-year extension options for a $20 million payout from the social network to leave early.

Email Kevin Kelly at [e-mail] or call him at 650-391-1049. http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_29472343/menlo-park-biotech-firms-invention-puts-it-at