UCC announce launch of spinout company SeqBiome

UCC Innovation today announced the launch of SeqBiome a spinout from APC Microbiome Ireland, SFI Research Centre, University College Cork and Teagasc (the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority).

SeqBiome provides high-quality and interactive sequencing and microbiome analysis for academia and industry.

The offering is comprehensive and spans the microbiome project continuum with the aim of creating meaningful microbiome insights for clients across industries such as Pharmaceuticals, Nutrition, Sport, Healthcare, Agriculture, and other Life Sciences.

The distinguished Co-Founders of SeqBiome, Dr. Marcus Claesson (CEO), Prof Paul Cotter (CTO), and Brad Wrigley (Executive Director) have over 40 years of combined published microbiome experience, with over 350 papers and 23,000 citations.

UCC support launch of  SeqBiome

Prof. Anita R. Maguire, VP Research & Innovation, UCC today commented on the launch of SeqBiome

“The launch of SeqBiome as the most recent spin-out company to emerge based on the excellent research underway within APC is very welcome – bringing this capability in sequencing and bioinformatic analysis of microbiome to commercial reality is a tremendous milestone for those involved in this research area within APC.”

Dr. Marcus Claesson, SeqBiome founder, and CEO also commented;

“For many Pharma, Nutrition, Sport, Agriculture and Healthcare companies, microbiome analysis is a complex and time-consuming process. It requires the support of expensive sequencing facilities, significant computational power, and extensive expertise in bioinformatic analysis and interpretation. Without these in-house capabilities, commercial organisations struggle to derive meaningful and reliable information about their products and their impact on microbiome”.

Dr. Claesson spoke of how excited the SeqBiome team are for the launch, and how they are moving from strength to strength:

“We are incredibly excited to officially launch SeqBiome and provide a range of world-class sequencing and analysis services to support our clients with these challenges. After a short few months, our existing clients and partners already include Nestle, MARS Petcare, Atlantia, Alpinia Institute, Microbion, and the PrecisionBiotics Group. We’re building a vastly experienced team with a shared vision to help these and other organisations develop world-class products that make a real difference to microbiome health. The spin-out wouldn’t have been possible without the support from Enterprise Ireland, UCC, APC and Teagasc.”

UCC Innovation Director, Dr Rich Ferrie added:

‘’UCC Innovation has played a key role in the launch of new UCC spin-out SeqBiome Ltd and I am delighted to see the establishment of this exciting company which has seen first-class research and state-of-the-art capability transition into a commercial reality with endless possibilities for growth and expansion’’

APC Director Paul Ross commented:

“APC Microbiome Ireland is delighted with the launch of its new spin-out company SeqBiome Ltd – a company dedicated to custom sequencing and bioinformatic analysis of microbiome-related samples. The establishment of the new company is testament to the vision and courage of the main APC co-founders Professor Paul Cotter and Dr. Marcus Claesson and is the latest spin-out company associated with the APC following in the footsteps of Atlantia Food Clinical Trials Ltd, Artugen Therapeutics, 4D Pharma Cork Ltd, and PrecisionBiotics Ltd.

Paul expressed his appreciation for SeqBiome and how it is a mark of what APC is trying to achieve:

“SeqBiome is a great example of the APC’s ambition to translate high-quality research and state-of-the-art capability into a commercial reality with the creation of increased critical mass, hi-tech jobs and economic success – centered around microbiome science. This is perfectly aligned with SFI objectives and government strategy to deliver economic impact built on a world-class scientific knowledge base.”

Welcoming the announcement, Prof Mark Ferguson, Director General, Science Foundation Ireland and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland said:

“I am delighted to see SeqBiome launch in the areas of sequence analysis and bioinformatics, as a spin-out from the APC Microbiome Ireland SFI Research Centre. It demonstrates the strength of the Irish research ecosystem in supporting the commercialisation and transfer of cutting-edge research into the marketplace and highlights the important role played by the SFI Research Centres in advancing knowledge, enhancing enterprise and industry, developing critical skills, and growing Ireland’s international reputation for research excellence.”

Teagasc Director, Professor Gerry Boyle said:

“Teagasc is delighted to see the launch of the spin-out company, SeqBiome Ltd. It’s a further reflection of the cutting-edge nature of the applied microbiome-, DNA sequencing- and bioinformatics-related research that is carried out at Teagasc. It also exemplifies another route through which Teagasc can contribute to high-quality job creation to support the Irish economy. We wish co-founder and CTO, Prof Paul Cotter, who is the Head of Food Biosciences at Teagasc, and his APC Microbiome Ireland colleague and CEO, Dr. Marcus Claesson, and executive Director, Brad Wrigley, the very best with this venture and note the important contributions of Dr. Orla O’Sullivan and Dr. Fiona Crispie of Teagasc in the establishment of SeqBiome.”

1. Directors bios

Marcus (CEO) received his BSc in Chemical Engineering & Physics and MSc in Bioinformatics at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. After a completed PhD on sequencing and comparative genomics of Lactobacillus species, he investigated the microbiota of aging as part of the ELDERMET project.

Marcus is Principal Investigator at APC Microbiome Ireland, Programme Director of the MSc in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at University College Cork, and Chair of the EU COST Action ML4Microbiome aiming to optimise the use of Machine Learning in microbiome science.

With close to 20 years’ microbiome experience, his research interest includes the role of the microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease and associated methods development.

Paul (CTO) received his BSc and PhD in Microbiology from University College Cork.

Paul is the Head of Food Biosciences at Teagasc and a Principal Investigator with the APC Microbiome Ireland and Vistamilk SFI Centres, as well as Food for Health Ireland.

He also coordinates the EU H2020 Innovation Action relating to microbiomes and the food chain, MASTER. He is a molecular microbiologist, with a particular focus on the microbiology of foods, the food chain and of animals/humans.

Paul’s laboratory at Teagasc were winners at the Irish Laboratory of the Year Awards on multiple occasions. He has also received awards from the Society for Applied Microbiology, ESCMID and FEMS, and heads the App

lied Microbiology section within Faculty of 1000 (Biology), and was included in the Clarivate list of highly cited researchers for 2018 and 2019.”

Brad (Executive Director) has over 20 years of experience as a director, entrepreneur, investor and CEO having worked within the Government, MedTech, and IT industries.

These have included world-leading multinationals such as consultancy firm Accenture, IT giant Dell EMC and cloud services company Virtustream.

Over the past few years Brad has focused on working with a number of start-ups and spin-out companies, helping them to bring their services and products to market.

2. Microbiome sequencing and analysis

The microbiome is the collection of microorganisms (mainly bacteria, fungi, viruses) and their genes in a particular environmental niche.

The role of the microbiome is being increasingly linked with human health and wellbeing and has immense biotechnological potential.

Sequencing and bioinformatic analysis of the microbiome entail reading the collective DNA of the microorganisms to find out what their types and functions.

For instance, does a particular food or medication change the intestinal microbiome in a beneficial or harmful way.

Please visit www.seqbiome.com for more information

More about Irish Tech News and Business Showcase here.

FYI the ROI for you is => Irish Tech News now gets over 1.5 million monthly views, and up to 900k monthly unique visitors, from over 160 countries. We have over 860,000 relevant followers on Twitter on our various accounts & were recently described as Ireland’s leading online tech news site and Ireland’s answer to TechCrunch, so we can offer you a good audience!

Since introducing desktop notifications a short time ago, which notify readers directly in their browser of new articles being published, over 50,000 people have now signed up to receive them ensuring they are instantly kept up to date on all our latest content. Desktop notifications offer a unique method of serving content directly to verified readers and bypass the issue of content getting lost in people’s crowded news feeds.

Drop us a line if you want to be featured, guest post, suggest a possible interview or just let us know what you would like to see more of in our future articles. We’re always open to new and interesting suggestions for informative and different articles. Contact us, by email, twitter or whatever social media works for you and hopefully, we can share your story too and reach our global audience. We are agile, responsive, quick and talented, we look forward to working with you!

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie or on Twitter: @SimonCocking