News from our community

Rosser to Support the Alabama Bioscience Community

BIO Alabama welcomes Master of Biotechnology student  into it’s summer/fall internship program, a program for college students who are intrinsically curious about Alabama’s bioscience industry and are motivated to promote the intellectual and innovative capital that make our state a premier place to invest, start, and grow in bioscience. 

Austin Rosser, a Master of Biotechnology student from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was recently accepted to BIO Alabama’s summer/fall internship program. 

“Finishing my Master of Biotechnology degree during a global pandemic amplified the importance of my degree and my chosen field,” said Austin Rosser. “I’m fortunate to be transitioning into the paid workforce, but volunteer work is equally important to me. BIO Alabama provides an incredible opportunity to expand my skill set, build my network, and contribute to our expanding bioscience community in a meaningful way.”  

Rosser will spend the rest of his summer and early fall conducting research on tactics, techniques, and strategies that will help BIO Alabama develop an economic development roadmap focused on business attraction and retention, workforce development, and startup and tech transfer within the bioscience community. He will assist in collecting, compiling, and translating data into a consumable report. The final report will be presented at BIO Alabama’s annual conference in October. 

“It’s an incredible time to be involved in Alabama’s bioscience community and we’re thrilled that Austin chose to volunteer with us even though classes were coming to an end,” said Sonia Robinson, Executive Director of BIO Alabama. “BIO Alabama has a number of initiatives underway including the development of our strategic economic development roadmap and virtual annual conference. Having Austin’s energy and enthusiasm will help us deliver a robust plan as well as curate an annual conference designed to surprise and delight our attendees,” Robinson adds.

BIO Alabama provides remote internship opportunities throughout the year and is now accepting cover letters and resumes for fall internship and annual conference ambassador opportunities. Interested students may email their cover letter and resume to sonia@bioalabama.com.  In addition to BIO Alabama, a number of bioscience companies across the state welcome interns. Interested students may contact BIO Alabama for more information. Bioscience companies who have available internships are encouraged to send internship opportunities to BIO Alabama for assistance in promoting those opportunities to partner colleges and universities.  

Interns support the executive director in further connecting our bioscience ecosystem. Internships with BIO Alabama are for college credit and follow the college or university's internship guidelines including minimum hour requirements and deliverables. 

• Avanti combining with Croda to expand life sciences products, pharmaceutical services and cGMP production capabilities for biotechnology, pharmaceutical and life science research customers globally
• Avanti will continue to operate under the Avanti brand and be led by the current management team

Alabaster, Alabama – Avanti Polar Lipids, Inc. (“Avanti” or the “Company”) today announces it has agreed to be acquired by Croda International, Plc (“Croda”). The combination of two life science leaders brings together Avanti’s expertise in lipid-based drug delivery solutions through its research products and pharmaceutical services and Croda’s range of life science products and cGMP manufacturing capabilities to expand their respective breadth of products and services for biotechnology businesses, academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies globally.

Avanti was founded in 1967 by Dr. Walter and Rowena Shaw and is a leader in the development and manufacturing of high-purity lipids that are increasingly utilized as drug delivery solutions for complex therapeutic drugs and next generation mRNA vaccines. The Company operates from its campus in Alabama with its skilled workforce of approximately 150 employees, including over 100 scientists. Throughout Avanti’s history it has been an innovator in lipid based products and applications for the life sciences markets and currently serves thousands of leading biopharmaceutical companies and researchers around the world.

The Company has two primary revenue streams in research products and pharmaceutical services. Since the Company’s founding it has been a leader in developing lipids for life science research and currently offers over 2,000 lipid and adjuvant products serving over 3000 customers globally. The Company also offers pharmaceutical services where it leverages its lipid based expertise to develop and supply drug delivery solutions for complex therapeutics. Avanti provides a comprehensive range of services from formulation and analytical services through cGMP manufacturing of synthetic lipids and adjuvants for clinical and commercial applications.

Avanti’s know-how and technologies are highly complementary to Croda’s capabilities in drug delivery systems, vaccine adjuvants and immunotherapy. Avanti will be able to combine its leading position in pharmaceutical lipid-based applications with Croda’s access to global markets, greater manufacturing capacity and a broader set of capabilities to expand the range of products and services for the combined customer base.

Avanti will continue to operate under the Avanti brand and be led by the current management team. It will be part of Croda’s Life Sciences sector and sit within its Health Care business.

Dr. Walter Shaw, CEO of Avanti, commented: “We are delighted to join Croda, which shares a common vision of innovation to deliver products and services to solve pressing healthcare needs around the world. Avanti has been my life’s work, I am extremely proud of what the Avanti family has accomplished to date and I could not think of a better partner to continue to support our customers and talented employees in their pursuit of solving complex drug delivery challenges in the future.”

Steve Foots, CEO of Croda, commented: “We have long admired the Avanti team for their deep scientific know-how and are already working together on high-potential commercial opportunities. With their exciting drug delivery technologies, Avanti is a market leader in a high growth niche of the health care market, serving over 3,000 customers globally. Bringing Avanti’s best-in-class expertise into Croda also significantly enhances our presence across the pharma product lifecycle, including early stage R&D, clinical trials, analysis and formulation. I am confident that Avanti will prove transformative to the capabilities and performance of our Life Sciences sector.”

BlackArch Partners served as exclusive financial advisor to Avanti. Maynard Cooper & Gale served as legal advisor to Avanti.

Further information:

Dr. Kacee Sims - Kacee.Sims@avantilipids.com

About Avanti Polar Lipids, Inc.:

More at: www.avantilipids.com

Avanti specializes in the development and production of high-purity polar lipids that are increasingly being used in next-generation drug delivery technology and vaccines. It has two primary revenue streams:

• Research Products: sales of a wide range of high-purity lipid products for pharmaceutical research and development
• Pharmaceutical Services: comprehensive liposomal drug delivery development and production solutions. In addition to its formulation and analytical capabilities, Avanti provides a production capability, to the highest quality and regulatory standards (known as Good Manufacturing Practice or GMP), to support customers’ drug development, clinical trials and commercial supply of novel drug delivery systems.

With its extensive portfolio, Avanti serves biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies around the world.

About Croda:

More at www.croda.com

Established in 1925, Croda is the name behind sustainable, high performance ingredients and technologies in some of the world’s most successful brands: creating, making and selling speciality chemicals that are relied on by industries and consumers everywhere.

Croda is a FTSE100 company with over 4,500 passionate and innovative employees, working across manufacturing sites and offices around the world with a shared Purpose to use Smart Science to Improve Lives™. As part of this Purpose, and with around two thirds of its organic raw materials already from bio-based sources, Croda has committed to be the most sustainable supplier of innovative ingredients, becoming Climate, Land and People Positive by 2030.

Interested in turning your innovative ideas into reality?

On behalf of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dawnbreaker will be hosting a workshop to introduce the exciting opportunities offered by the USDA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. These competitive, grants provide the opportunity to conduct research and explore the development of new technologies, services, and products. The USDA SBIR program offers competitively awarded grants up to $100,000 to qualified small businesses to support the growth of research and ideas into products and services that could lead to significant public benefit in agriculture and community development. Whether you’re an established business, aspiring innovator, or even if you’ve applied for SBIR grant funding in the past, this workshop can help you get set-up for success. Come, learn, grow, and gain a better understanding of the program, the chance to meet with experts and secure a personal proposal consultant, on-site access to laptops to set-up all required registration information, including a DUNS number.

Proposals will be accepted from the following topic areas:

» Forests and Related Resources

» Plant Production and Protection - Biology

» Animal Production and Protection

» Air, Water and Soils

» Food Science and Nutrition

» Rural Development

» Aquaculture

» Biofuels and Biobased Products

» Small and Mid-Size Farms

» Plant Production and Protection - Engineering

June 30, 2020 (Huntsville, Ala.) – Everbloom Health, Inc., a Sulfilatec company, has launched a new program called “Burl Gives Back” to address food insecurity. Through this program, the company is donating one bag of its Burl Barley Granola® product for every four bags of granola sold at burlgranola.com. The program was launched during the midst of COVID-19 stay-at-home restrictions and has been successful.

“Our product donations through the Burl Gives Back program have been much higher than we anticipated,” said Dr. Chris Cummings, CEO of Everbloom Health. “We deeply appreciate the support of our customers and love the opportunity to meet some of the needs of those facing food insecurity.”

Dr. Cummings explained that “hunger is all too common in our society due to food deserts, economic uncertainty, and other factors. It impacts all ages, from innocent kids to our cherished elderly and even entire families. Additionally, it impacts many within the kidney disease community, where we have a major part of our operations. The Burl Gives Back program is our way of doing what we can to help.”

Founded in 2018, Everbloom Health offers Burl Barley Granola as a healthy food option made with rolled barley rather than oats. Whole grain barley is used relatively infrequently in the US food supply, yet has many nutritional properties and is also a preferred grain for many renal diets. The company offers its granola as a kidney-friendly food to health-conscious markets.

Everbloom Health is a subsidiary of Sulfilatec, Inc., a biotech company working to develop new products that address the elevated mortality and morbidity burdens in dialysis populations. Everbloom Health and Sulfilatec are both located at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, AL.

To learn more about the Burl Gives Back program, visit burlgranola.com.

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by Life Science Newswire | Jun 24, 2020 | Biotechnology, Corporate, Finance & Investor | 0 comments

Caption: The flagship building for the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and its associate companies, located at 601 Genome Way, Huntsville AL. Collaborative work between Foresight Biosciences and Van Heron Labs will take place in Suite 4104 at this site.

Houston, Texas, and Huntsville, Alabama have served as epicenters of innovation for decades, partnering to push boundaries, upend limitations, and put mankind on the moon. In a strategic new alignment, Van Heron Labs, a startup formed in Houston, will begin working alongside Huntsville’s Foresight Biosciences to continue the tradition.

Both company’s current founders, leadership, and support teams are dominated by Texas and Alabama natives with many current and former students of state institutions (Auburn, U.A.H., U.A.B., U.H., Rice, U.T., U.T. Health, W.T.A.M.U., T.A.M.U.). Van Heron Labs is also named in honor of the late James Van Heron, a widely admired Alabama native holding several microbiology degrees from Auburn University. Together, the two southern companies will take aim at surpassing the boundaries in a burgeoning field: biotechnology.

Foresight Biosciences are leaders in glycoscience and enzymatic assay development. Their innovative technologies advance glycobiology research and improve the production of glycoprotein therapeutics. The current production of biologics is not only complex and costly, but also plagued with common issues, e.g. high immunogenicity, poor shelf-life, which hinder protein-based drug development. Foresight’s proprietary platform revolutionizes therapeutic protein production to yield higher quality biologics by inducing protein modifications necessary to create more effective human biopharmaceutical therapies. Foresight, aptly named, has also positioned themselves to continue applying their dynamic platform and broad interests to advance our understanding in fields ranging from the metabolic basis of human disease, to microbial ecology and evolution, to human stem cell research, and even agriculture; complemented by the on-going work of Van Heron Labs.

Van Heron’s mission is to reframe our understanding of organismal and cellular performance. They have created a novel pipeline that uses genetic analysis to design a customized procedure for optimizing metabolism for a particular organism or cell, maximizing growth and product output. A completely bootstrapped company, Van Heron Labs is primed to explode on the biotechnology scene due to the versatility of its technology. Their platform has the potential for astounding flexibility, ranging from increasing the production of valuable cellular products, to directly selecting for organisms in complex nutritional environments, to even other more niche applications spanning nearly every industrial, medical, and research sector. Van Heron Labs has yet to decide what they will disrupt first. However, they feel confident that the mentorship and opportunities that will come from pairing with an experienced company such as Foresight will prove to be a priceless advantage.

The strength of this partnership’s lies not only in the two companies’ shared multi-disciplinary vision for the future, but also in the complementarity of their two technological platforms. Foresight, like many companies who utilize cellular products, relies on the fidelity of the culture media they use. While industry standards for culture media have largely stagnated of late, Van Heron Labs aims to enhance standard media with their customized formulas that robustly increase a cell’s capabilities and therefore the quality of high-value cellular products. This provides the perfect opportunity for Van Heron Labs to add substantial value for Foresight, while simultaneously demonstrating viability at industry scale. The partnership offers mutual benefits for both companies and the field of biologic production as a whole.

As of now, prospective collaborative projects will be dynamic and will aim to impact and ameliorate fields like drug and enzyme discovery, development and production as well as industrial fermentation, bioremediation, cell culture, and beyond. Both companies are currently using their platforms to develop technology to help battle COVID-19. In anticipation of continuing collaborative work with Foresight, Van Heron Labs plans to move a significant portion of their laboratory operations from the Texas Medical Center in Houston to the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology located in Huntsville, Alabama this month. However, VHL also plans to maintain a strong presence and activism within the Houston entrepreneurial ecosystem, which the company cites as the catalyst for the birth and growth of the company. Van Heron Labs hopes that this will be the first of many collaborations between Huntsville and Houston the two cities spearhead the growing life-science entrepreneurship movement in the southern U.S.

For more information please visit http://foresight-bio.com/ and http://vanheronlabs.com/.

To read more about HudsonAlpha’s mission and vision, as well as the innovative work being done on the campus, please visit https://hudsonalpha.org/.

About Foresight Biosciences: Foresight Biosciences provides technology for glycobiology research with an emphasis on creating tools and in vitro technologies to advance protein-based drug development. We are focused on providing benchtop assays for glycoprotein fingerprint analysis, enzymes and convenient kits for identifying, repairing, and modifying protein glycosylation. In addition to our current product portfolio, we are working to develop recombinant expression systems that yield products with human-like surface glycosylations. The end goal is to improve treatments and ultimately prevent human diseases.

About Van Heron Labs: VHL is a platform technology service that uses a proprietary pipeline to determine the nutrient substrates needed for optimal biosynthesis and growth across organisms and cell types. The one-of-a-kind technology can be deployed for virtually any application which involves or harnesses living cells or bio-matter. VHL is currently focused on addressing speed and scale challenges, particularly for the production of key bio-products. VHL’s platform can be leveraged as a competitive advantage for microbial or cell culture, the production of biologic drugs, enzymes, and other high-value natural or recombinant  products.

June 24, 2020 (Huntsville, Ala.) – The Muscogee (Creek) Nation (MCN), the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and HudsonAlpha Health Alliance, have begun a collaboration to bring health and education programs with a focus on genetics and genomics to the tribe. The integration of genomic information in precision medicine is rapidly advancing health care, as an individual’s genome carries important information about disease risks, potential responses to therapy, and appropriate medications. By building programs that integrate genomics into the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Department of Health (MCNDH), its citizens and patients will gain access to these advances. 

In keeping with tribal leadership’s commitment to improving access to quality and advanced education programs, the collaboration will also provide MCN students and educators access to the latest in genomic science educational tools and classroom support, as well as opportunities to explore careers in biotechnology and genomic medicine through a variety of workforce programs.

The MCN genomic health program, through a collaboration with the Health Alliance, will involve the implementation of comprehensive clinical genetic testing to citizens receiving care at MCNDH. This will include clinical decision support for MCNDH physicians, access to the Health Alliance’s Genome Gateway portal for electronic delivery of genetic test results, and test-specific education for patients and physicians. The program will be managed with strict adherence to the tribe’s privacy standards, quality protocols and supervision for the purpose of improving health outcomes for MCN citizens.  

“This exciting program creates a critical bridge between the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the advanced genomic science and education programs at the HudsonAlpha Institute. We think this program will serve as a new collaborative model that will give MCN a leadership position in Native American health initiatives, empowering their citizens to participate in the biotechnology revolution, while maintaining tribal autonomy,” said Devin Absher, PhD, Director of Genomic Health at HudsonAlpha.  

“The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Department of Health takes pride in its history of innovation, from being the first tribe in the country to own and operate community hospitals to collaborating with an internationally recognized research institution to improve healthcare delivery for our citizens. This partnership with HudsonAlpha provides a real-world solution to address the significant health disparities our citizens face and will enable us to improve health outcomes for generations to come,” said Shawn Terry, Secretary of Health for the Muscogee Creek Nation.

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About Muscogee (Creek) Nation: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation is the fourth-largest federally recognized tribe in the United States, headquartered in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. MCN has more than 89,000 citizens.

About HudsonAlpha: HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is a nonprofit institute dedicated to developing and applying scientific advances to health, agriculture, learning, and commercialization. Opened in 2008, HudsonAlpha’s vision is to leverage the synergy between discovery, education, medicine, and economic development in genomic sciences to improve the human condition around the globe. The HudsonAlpha biotechnology campus consists of 152 acres nestled within Cummings Research Park, the nation’s second largest research park. The state-of-the-art facilities co-locate nonprofit scientific researchers with entrepreneurs and educators. HudsonAlpha has become a national and international leader in genetics and genomics research and biotech education and fosters more than 40 diverse biotech companies on campus. To learn more about HudsonAlpha, visit hudsonalpha.org.

Livia Jojo to Spend Summer & Fall Supporting the Alabama Bioscience Community  

BIO Alabama welcomes it’s third student intern and second Master of Biotechnology student into it’s summer internship program, a program for college students who are intrinsically curious about Alabama’s bioscience industry and are motivated to promote the intellectual and innovative capital that make our state a premier place to invest, start, and grow in bioscience. 

Livia Jojo, a Master of Biotechnology student at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, was recently accepted to BIO Alabama’s summer internship program. She will continue her internship into the fall to assist with BIO Alabama’s annual conference. 

“Expanding my experience and learning more about business operations, marketing, and public relations is why I chose BIO Alabama for a summer and fall internship,” said Livia Jojo. “Since March, I’ve had the opportunity to work in a laboratory fine tuning my knowledge, skills, and abilities. Now I’m ready to expand and broaden the scope of my KSAs.”  

Jojo will spend her summer and fall researching, planning, and implementing the communications and outreach for BIO Alabama’s annual conference including the management of project timelines and the creation of communication and creative assets. The conference theme is a continuation of BIO Alabama’s mission - to connect the Alabama bioscience community. Jojo will liaise with sponsors, presenters, and registered attendees to ensure they have an incredible experience while connecting with bioscience peers around the state and regionally. 

“While the look and feel of large gatherings is still uncertain - one thing is certain, Alabama’s bioscience community has responded in jaw-dropping ways to a global pandemic,” said Sonia Robinson, Executive Director of BIO Alabama. “Our annual conference will provide an opportunity to share the stories of innovation, breakthrough, and success more broadly and we’re thrilled to have Livia on board to help us spread the word and create an exceptional show that will ultimately connect, educate, and inspire our conference attendees.” 

BIO Alabama provides remote internship opportunities throughout the year and is currently accepting resumes for it’s fall internship program.  In addition to BIO Alabama, a number of bioscience companies across the state welcome interns. Interested students may contact BIO Alabama for more information. Bioscience companies who have available internships are encouraged to send internship opportunities to BIO Alabama for assistance in promoting those opportunities to partner colleges and universities.  

Interns support the executive director in further connecting our bioscience ecosystem. Internships with BIO Alabama are for college credit and follow the college or university's internship guidelines including minimum hour requirements and deliverables. 

Share Your Expertise and Insight with the Alabama Bioscience Community; Deadline July 17 

This fall, from October 5-9, the Alabama bioscience community will come together for the annual BIO Alabama conference. While the look and feel of large gatherings is still uncertain, one thing is certain - BIO Alabama is looking for the best speakers to INSPIRE, EDUCATE, and CONNECT our researchers, scientists, startups, manufacturers, and medium and large bioscience companies.  

During this conference, BIO Alabama will amplify the innovative work of our members, partners, and the broader Alabama bioscience community. This call for sessions is open to all researchers, scientists, and business leaders working to change the way we feed, fuel, and heal our world. Whether you are directly or indirectly involved in translating science for the greater good, we invite you to submit a session proposal.

The conference theme is a continuation of BIO Alabama’s mission: CONNECTING THE ALABAMA BIOSCIENCE ECOSYSTEM

Hybrid approach to planning: As you prepare your proposal, keep in mind that BIO Alabama’s annual conference may have virtual and in-person components. Conference dates may expand beyond Oct. 7-8 and include more opportunities during the entire week of Oct. 5-9. More details will be shared as we get closer to the date and with guidance from evolving pandemic public health guidelines.

DEADLINE: July 17, 2020

All Session Proposals are due by 5:00 p.m. CST on July 17, 2020.

Policies Governing Submission of Company Presentation Proposals:

• Proposals will be evaluated on their novel and topical content.

• All speakers listed on the proposal must be aware that they are being considered, eligible, and willing to participate as a speaker if the program is selected.

• Presentations may have a visual component that may be projected for all session attendees to view (ex. PowerPoint presentation, graphs, charts, video, etc.). However, this is not required.

• BIO Alabama reserves the right to edit any submitted materials for promotional purposes.

• Sessions may be scheduled at any time during the conference. Speakers must be available to present.

• Submissions promoting specific product brands and/or companies will not be considered.

• Incomplete proposals will not be considered.

• You do not have to be a BIO Alabama member to submit a session proposal.

• BIO Alabama does not provide a speaker honoraria. We will consider reimbursement for travel or housing expenses.

• BIO Alabama reserves the right to schedule presentations as virtual on-demand, virtual interactive, or in-person.

• BIO Alabama reserves the right to cancel a session at any time.

Tips for preparing your proposal:

Share your company story, an innovative approach to solving a specific scientific or business problem, details about your pipeline and work, your business objectives or inspirational stories of success. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Infectious Diseases and Vaccines

• Innovative Companies and Researchers

• Next Generation Biotherapeutics

• Personalized/Precision Medicine

• Regulatory Innovation

• Digital Health/ MedTech

• Genomics/Genetics

• Access to Capital

• Ag/Food/Industrial Bio

• Economic Development

• International Trade 

• Corporate Best Practices

COVID-19 has caused a serious dip in Main Street economies all over the country, but we're seeing some signs of recovery. We want Alabama to not just recover itself, but help the country recover and build better systems for the future. And, we want you to be a part of it!

With the help of our partners around the state, we are pivoting Alabama Launchpad's Cycle 3 2020, and applications are open. You can get all the details here.

We're focusing on FOUR sectors:

• SECTOR I: COMMERCIAL, RETAIL, LIVE EVENTS: How do we use innovation to enjoy our lifestyles again?
• SECTOR II: HEALTHCARE: How do we make our healthcare centers in both rural/urban centers and workforce more resilient and adaptable?
• SECTOR III: EDUCATION: How do we use this opportunity to reinvent education?
• SECTOR IV: INDUSTRIAL/MANUFACTURING: How do we optimize Alabama's industrial sectors for efficiency - and safety?

This is a response to crisis and a call to action. We want to see your ideas for new companies, new products, and innovations for this new normal. Applications are open until July 16, and we hope to see yours!

Apply here.

Thank you to our partners in Reignite Alabama: 

Fast Track™ offers alternative option to current COVID-19 reagents

Scientists at iXpressGenes, on the campus of HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, have engineered a new reagent, critical to pathogen detection testing. It’s a DNA polymerase, derived from a deep-sea organism (hyperthermophillic marine archaeon), well-suited to couple with RT-PCR reactions. The enzyme, named Fast Track™ has a longer half-life, higher fidelity, and greater extension and binding efficiency than the commonly used Taq DNA polymerase and others. Fast Track makes the amplification activity of pathogenic DNA more stable and specific. 

A DNA polymerase is important to molecular diagnostics because the process depends on a rapid amplification of genetic material, and the polymerase catalyzes that step, starting the process.  

DNA polymerase is one of the reagents that has been difficult to source during the COVID-19 pandemic and has limited the number of tests performed. Members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force working group contacted Dr. Joseph Ng, President of iXpressGenes to discuss the urgency of reagent availability. iXpressGenes optimized its recipe and manufacturing process to help diagnostic companies meet the demand. 

“The critical component comes from a hydrothermal vent (a sea floor fissure) at the bottom of the ocean floor that Dr. Owen Garriott harvested from a deep sea trip we took several years ago. We were looking for a microorganism that could help solve industrial challenges,” said Dr. Ng, a close friend and colleague of the late Dr. Garriott. “This particular enzyme has evolved over millions of years to replicate DNA at very high temperatures. We have further modified it and we’ve ramped up production to help support the COVID-19 crisis.”

The product is offered on the company’s website, ixpressgenes.com.

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Photo caption: Dr. Joseph Ng, President, iXpressGenes, Inc.