Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Clinical Data, 454 Life Sciences team up to study crop genes

By Mass High Tech Staff

A pair of New England life sciences firms and a partner in France plan to team up in an effort to find desirable genetic traits of wheat and other crops, the companies report.

Newton-based Clinical Data Inc.’s (Nasdaq:CLDA) Cogenics subsidiary plans to work with 454 Life Sciences, a Branford, Conn.-based DNA sequencing unit of Swiss medical products giant Roche Holding AG, to develop a genetic test that would be used to pinpoint optimal genes of wheat. The work, which will be done by the Cogenics operation in France, also involves plant-breeding firm Limagrain Verneuil Holding, of Chappes, France. 

454 Life Sciences is slated to contribute its next-generation sequencing system, which Cogenics said it installed at its labs in spring of 2007. Connecticut biotech firm CuraGen Corp. sold the 454 Life Sciences business to Roche last year in a deal valued at $155 million.

Limagrain plans to manage a second phase of the project, involving large-scale genetic selection of crops, according to the companies.

Clinical Data, a biotech firm with units focused on life sciences research, diagnostics and drug development, reported a 2007 net loss of $37.5 million on revenue of $63.7 million. The firm employed 459 workers as of December 2007.