Shawn Baker

10x Genomics Scales Up, Agrees to Acquire Scale Biosciences An exclusive interview with Serge Saxonov of 10x Genomics and Giovanna Prout of Scale Biosciences on what the acquisition means for single cell genomics.

Some consolidation in the single cell space - 10X Genomics (@10xgenomics.bsky.social) set to acquire Scale Biosciences

www.genengnews.com/topics/omics...

Element Biosciences Surpasses 50 AVITI24™ 5D Multiomic System Installations In Just Months Element Biosciences today announced that installations of its flagship AVITI24 5D Multiomic system have surpassed 50 units globally.

📢 We are very proud to announce that over 50 of our #AVITI24 5D #multiomic systems have already been installed around the globe enabling scientists to unravel the most complex questions about our biology.

bit.ly/458UCky

Atlas, Twist's DNA data storage spin-off, is claiming that "pretty quickly" the majority of DNA sequencing (by "orders of magnitude") will be for reading data storage. I'm skeptical. Maybe we have different definitions of "pretty quickly".
#dnasynth #datastorage

www.genomeweb.com/business-new...

Quick update on this - a good one!

Thanks to our fantastic colleagues at county HHSA, we're able to continue our wastewater surveillance work, including generating retroactive data from the last few months, as well as new data moving forward.

For how long, we'll see, but expect updates soon! 🌟❤️

So the Soma kit may do well, but my guess is it will be a lot harder for ILMN to sell proteomics kits than it is for them to sell standard DNA sequencing kits. And, as you’ve said, can they build upon what they’re buying from Soma.

I didn’t say they only sell boxes, but that they struggle selling inexpensive things (even it’s still a box). The exception, of course, are the kits that run on the boxes - those sell really well.

The Extinction of Truth Or, a Colossal Pile of Bullshit

Updated a broken link in my substack post about the
#ColossalBio #DeExtinction #DisInformation campaign – dire wolves are still extinct.

open.substack.com/pub/devoevom...

And hopefully ILMN will get better at selling things (like kits) that don't cost $1M+. They don't have a great history at trying to broaden their product portfolio with lower cost products. This may be different enough to break that pattern.

True, they don't need to dominate like they do is sequencing. I just wonder how well SomaLogic will do against Olink. There are LOTS of proteomics platforms out there (which will continue for the foreseeable future), but these two are more "head to head". I'm not sure ILMN picked the best one.

Illumina to acquire SomaLogic, accelerating its proteomics business and advancing the company's multiomics strategy

Illumina goes “all in” on proteomics by purchasing SomaLogic (from
Standard BioTools). Can they overtake Olink?

www.illumina.com/company/news...

Can't wait to listen to this one!

Xaira Therapeutics Releases Largest Perturb-Seq Dataset to Power the Virtual Cell The AI unicorn's Perturb-seq atlas is publicly available and detects dose-dependent genetic effects to enhance predictive power for drug discovery.

www.genengnews.com/topics/artif...

The most charitable thing I can say about Twist’s (@twistbioscience.com) China tariff request is that it’s “unconvincing”. Tariffs aren’t the way to protect IP. This is just about making Chinese DNA more expensive.

endpoints.news/twist-biosci...

downloads.regulations.gov/BIS-2025-002...

DNA giant Illumina spawned an ecosystem of competitors and customers For Illumina, its former employees are both a boon and a problem. In the 27 years since its founding, the DNA sequencing company unlocked new frontiers in biology, medicine and ...

@jaredwhitlock.bsky.social has written an article about the many new companies spun out/spawned by ex-Illuminites. In it he references the crowdsourced "Illumina Diaspora" database Millard Chan and I created to keep track of them all.
sandiegomics.com/illumina-dia...
endpts.com/how-illumina...

Roche Highlights New Tests, Instrument Launches at Investor Day The firm touted new assays, provided an update on its nanopore sequencer, and offered insights into upcoming pipeline launches.

Roche has finally given their upcoming DNA sequencer a name - Axelios. So now we can stop calling it "Genia + Stratos".

www.genomeweb.com/molecular-di...

I should have put “win” in quotes. Kinda like a guy saying “Decided I’m too busy to punch you today”. Winning? Also, “wins” have been so infrequent they might have forgotten what they look like. We fear what we don’t understand 🤣

Exclusive: SEC expected to drop investigation of Illumina's $8B Grail deal The SEC is expected to drop an investigation into Illumina's $8 billion acquisition of cancer test developer Grail, Endpoints News has learned.

Illumina hasn't had a lot of wins recently. I think they'd count this as a win.

endpts.com/sec-expected...

This has to be one of the most "anti-science" and "anti-common sense" administrations the US has ever had. Tariffs are a tax, pure and simple and the consumer will be the one to pay the cost.

@twistbioscience.com is spinning out their DNA data storage tech. Atlas Data Storage is kicking off with $155M in "seed" funding 😳 That's a lot of "seed" for a market that doesn't exist yet. Best of luck! #dnasynthesis

investors.twistbioscience.com/news-release...

Amid tariff turmoil, Swiss drugmaker commits to build $1.1B research hub in San Diego Novartis plans to make San Diego the center of its West Coast research hub.

Novartis announced a big commitment/addition to the San Diego biotech scene.

www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/04/10/a...

China bans imports of Illumina's gene sequencers right after Trump tariff action China announced a ban on Tuesday on imports of genetic sequencers from U.S. medical equipment maker Illumina , just minutes after U.S. President Donald Trump's additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods took effect.

Things just keep getting worse for ILMN. Stagnant growth, increased competition from @elembio.bsky.social and Ultima, the threat of competition from Roche SBX, and now they’re shut down in China where they get 7% of their revenue. Yikes.

www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Francis Collins, the NIH Director for 12 years, led the Human Genome Project and other NIH efforts for 32 years, resigned today. Key words from his resignation letter
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/u...

Wow, perhaps Tang Capital was just trying to buy Singular Genomics to shut them down for the cash. I assumed Tang was trying to combine them with other acquisitions. Glad they weren’t the winning bid.

I wish this had been around when I was building/marketing RNA products at Illumina. It wouldn’t have given me a bigger budget, but it would have been something to feel smug about 🤣

RNA xkcd.com/3056

Xenium product updates : RNA and protein multiomics workflow @10xgenomics.bsky.social #AGBT2025 #AGBT25

#visiumhd product updates : segmentation , visium HD XL , visium hd 3’ @10xgenomics.bsky.social #agbt25

Certainly looks better than their current prototypes!

Looking forward to seeing what 10X has in store for 2025

Well, you see, I’m from the ancient past.