Lured into the promising field of synthetic biology, Life Technologies is striking a string of new deals intended to position the company as one of the primary providers of the research tools which will be needed by scientists laboring on new projects. According to a report from Forbes' Matthew Herper, Life Technologies has reserved $100 million to invest in the field this year.
Yesterday the company announced its investment in J. Craig Venter's Synthetic Genomics, which rocked the scientific world recently with the news that it had created the world's first artificial life form. It also closed on the buyout of Geneart. And the company, known primarily as a biotech tool supplier, has plenty of new deals on the horizon.
"We want to replicate what we've done in molecular biology, which is provide the tool kits for scientists who do this kind of work," says Peter Dansky, president of molecular biology at Life.
Life Technologies didn't specify exactly how much money it invested in Venter's company, which is working to develop synthetic genomes that can play a big role in the development of new fuels, new vaccines, and much, much more.
- here's the Life Technologies release on the Venter deal
- read the report from Forbes