Cambridge based BlueGnome has confirmed that it is now supplying labs in over 15 countries with its innovative product 24sure, which is directed at one of the most intractable problems in fertility treatment – investigating the cause of recurrent miscarriage.
BlueGnome, recently ranked twenty in the Deloitte Fast50 list of the UK’s fastest growing businesses and already a world leader in technology for the investigation of genetic diseases, has experienced increased demand for its products, which automate what had previously been extremely time-consuming and highly skilled procedure.
BlueGnome’s VP Engineering Graham Snudden explains.
“Recent reductions in the price of these new molecular approaches means that they are now more cost effective than traditional techniques, which relied heavily on visual inspection by highly trained staff. The combination of lower costs and higher throughputs comes as welcome news to the world’s healthcare providers as they struggle to reduce spending while maintaining services.”
Over half of the UK’s regional genetics laboratories and more than 100 of the world’s leading hospitals use BlueGnome’s current CytoChip test, which provides high resolution and automated screening of DNA samples for abnormalities associated with leukaemias and childhood developmental delay.
With over 85% of product sales going overseas, and a third of the staff qualified to PhD, BlueGnome has used this demand and the low pound to significantly increase the size and profitability of its export business, particularly the United States and Australia. This in turn has enabled further investment in R&D resulting in new products like 24sure.
Snudden continues, “The value of BlueGnome lies in our intellectual property, and our ability to design and integrate across the multiple disciplines of mathematics, software engineering and molecular biology. Because we are a small and dynamic team, we can move quickly and exploit opportunities that larger companies might struggle to embrace. This enables us to capture and define new markets as they evolve.”
This rapid innovation lead BlueGnome to address one of the most intractable problems in IVF – counting the chromosomes in a single human egg. The resulting product, 24sure, is currently being evaluated by some of the world’s leading IVF laboratories. With the positive results of a two centre clinical trial by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) published today, BlueGnome is preparing for further growth in both UK and International markets.
About BlueGnome
BlueGnome (www.cytochip.com) is a specialist developer of microarrays, consumables, software and FISH probes to improve the speed and resolution of cytogenetic investigations.
For further information please contact: BlueGnome Ltd, Mill Court, Great Shelford, Cambridge, CB22 5LD, UK. T: +44 1223 844441 F: +44 1223 844445 E: info@cytochip.com
