Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Zephyrus Biosciences. Zephyrus Biosciences will be integrated into the Protein Platforms Division of Bio-Techne.
Zephyrus Biosciences provides research tools to enable protein analysis at the single cell level. Addressing the burgeoning single cell analysis market, Zephyrus’s first product, the Z1™ System, enables western blotting on individual cells for the first time. Researchers will utilize Zephyrus’s products to gain new insights into the biology of cancer, stem cells, neurology, and human disease and development. Zephyrus spun out from Dr. Amy Herr’s laboratory at U.C. Berkeley in 2013 and has affiliations with QB3, StartX, CLSI/BayBio, and Berkeley SkyDeck.
Charles R. Kummeth, President and Chief Executive Officer of Bio-Techne, said:
“The acquisition of Zephyrus demonstrates our continued interest in western blotting, a vital technique in protein identification and characterization. This new technology brings this technique to the single cell level, allowing us to address both homogenous sample populations with our Simple Western™ platforms and now heterogeneous populations at the single cell level with Zephyrus and the Z1 System. We are very excited to bring the Zephyrus products and team onboard.”
Zephyrus co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Kelly Gardner, Ph.D. added:
“We are excited to join Bio-Techne and bring our system into the ProteinSimple family of products. This deal provides an excellent path forward for commercialization of the single cell Western Blot (scWestern Blot) technology. The market reach of Bio-Techne will enable Zephyrus to rapidly reach the broad market of researchers who need to study proteins at the single cell level.”
Dr. Gardner and other members of the Zephyrus team will remain in place following the closing.