Carlsbad’s Genoptix Inc., which specializes in laboratory testing and diagnosis for community physicians working to identify blood-based diseases, has earned the No. 15 spot on Deloitte LLP’s ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America.
Rankings for the Technology Fast 500 list, released Oct. 20, are based on percentage of fiscal year revenue growth during the five-year period from 2004 to 2008.
The only local business that ranked higher on the Deloitte list was Entropic Communications Inc., a provider of silicon and software solutions to enable connected home entertainment. It grew revenues from $358,000 in 2004 to $146 million in 2008, a 40,691 percent increase, good for fifth on the list.
Genoptix, also ranked the second fastest-growing company in the San Diego region, grew 15,814 percent during that time. Its revenues rose from $730,000 in 2004 to $116 million in 2008.
“Our specialized, physician-directed approach to testing and diagnosis continues to drive increasing demand for our services nationwide,” said Genoptix CEO Tina Nova.
Genoptix has posted consecutive quarterly profits since the first quarter of 2007. Last week, its shares were trading around $36 on Nasdaq. Genoptix trades under the symbol GXDX.
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Stem Cell Breakthrough: A major finding by La Jolla researchers could speed the time it takes to reprogram adult stem cells back to an embryoniclike state while also increasing the number of cells in each batch.
Sheng Ding, a scientific co-founder of Fate Therapeutics, along with his colleagues at The Scripps Research Institute, used a cocktail of three small-molecule chemical compounds to reprogram stem cells in two weeks, cutting in half the typical time it takes to accomplish such a feat. Additionally, the researchers showed they could increase the number of cells produced in a single batch 200-fold.
The findings, published online Oct. 18 in the journal Nature Methods, have broad implications for the field of regenerative medicine, which aims to regrow tissues and organs using a person’s own stem cells.
“This is the first example in human cells of how reprogramming speed can be accelerated,” Ding said. “I believe that the field will quickly adopt this method, accelerating iPS cell research significantly.”
With the latest findings, Fate Therapeutics and partner Stemgent Inc. could have additional clout to market its technologies to pharmaceutical companies. In April, the companies formed an alliance called Catalyst to provide members with first dibs on its most advanced stem cell technologies for drug discovery and development.
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