454 Life Sciences - History and Major Achievements

History and Major Achievements

454 Life Sciences was founded by Jonathan Rothberg originally as 454 Corporation, a subsidiary of CuraGen Corporation. For their method for low-cost gene sequencing, 454 Life Sciences were awarded the Wall Street Journal's Gold Medal for Innovation in the Biotech-Medical category in 2005. The name 454 was the code name by which the project was referred to at CuraGen and the numbers have no special meaning.

In late March, 2007, Roche Diagnostics announced an agreement to purchase 454 Life Sciences for US$154.9 million. It will remain a separate business unit.

In November 2006, Rothberg, Michael Egholm, and colleagues at 454 published a cover article with Svante Paabo in Nature describing the first million base pairs of the Neanderthal genome, and initiated the Neanderthal Genome Project to complete the sequence of the Neanderthal genome by 2009.

In May 2007, Project "Jim", a project initiated by Rothberg and 454 Life Sciences to determine the first sequence of an individual was completed after sequencing the genome of James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.

Read more about this topic:  454 Life Sciences

Famous quotes containing the words history and, history, major and/or achievements:

    All objects, all phases of culture are alive. They have voices. They speak of their history and interrelatedness. And they are all talking at once!
    Camille Paglia (b. 1947)

    The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.
    Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)

    You should hurry up ... and acquire the cigar habit. It’s one of the major happinesses. And so much more lasting than love, so much less costly in emotional wear and tear.
    Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)

    There are some achievements which are never done in the presence of those who hear of them. Catching salmon is one, and working all night is another.
    Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)