INTEGRA Biosciences has acquired Miroculus, a biotechnology specialist focused on developing hands-off automation solutions for next-generation sequencing (NGS) protocols.
This acquisition aims to allow INTEGRA to expand its product range for library preparation, offering significant time savings to academic, research, and diagnostics laboratories using NGS and, ultimately, accelerating discovery in this field, the company says.
Miroculus was founded to develop innovative and intuitive tools that simplify complex genomics protocols, making them accessible to a wider range of scientists.
“We have acquired this promising start-up because we recognize the huge potential of its revolutionary digital microfluidics technology for automating and miniaturizing genomics protocols,” says Urs Hartmann, CEO of INTEGRA. “Miroculus’ proprietary platform delivers assay flexibility and automation capacity, which enables seamless workflow integration, streamlining the experimental process and empowering researchers to translate their discoveries into practical solutions that will improve people’s lives.”
Further reading: How Next-Generation Sequencing Is Revolutionizing Precision Medicine
INTEGRA acquired Miroculus in order to better serve the growing NGS market with novel and precise solutions for applications such as automating long-read sequencing and target enrichment protocols. The acquisition also ensures ongoing company growth and safeguards staff; high priorities for both companies.
“We began Miroculus with the mission to advance science and improve lives faster, and the last year has been significant for us as we’ve worked toward this goal,” says Alejandro Tocigl, co-founder and CEO of Miroculus. “Most notably, we launched the Miro Canvas system, which is a compact and easy-to-use digital microfluidics platform that fully automates NGS sample preparation protocols and makes them accessible to scientists everywhere. We are extremely excited to now be a part of INTEGRA and to continue our shared culture of innovation for the scientific community.”
Featured image: Miroculus team members welcome new colleagues from INTEGRA to their office in San Francisco. Photo: INTEGRA Biosciences
