BioMachines gets new partner

CARRBORO,N.C.—BioMachines Inc. a biotech automation company, announced last month that Clearview Limited acquired a majority stake in the company and with it the hiring two new executive leaders for the company.

Tom Larrichio, former vice president of business development at TriVirix International was named CEO and Sam Tetlow, a principal with Clearview becomes board chairman. Under the new leadership, and with the additional resources provided by Clearview, the company now intends to make a concerted push in the proteomics field with its two-dimensional gel electrophoresis separation and its TMiD tissue spotting tool.

 "What we have is small-scale robotics. That product is used in the sample prep of the materials before it goes into mass spec," says Larrichio. "The capabilities provide precision automation and speed to the users that are trying to prepare these samples and that are what differentiates us."

For the short term, the opportunity for the company is its TMiD system, a relative newcomer to the market in the sample prep arena. "TMiD is a newer product for us and we don't find that tissue spotting is a very crowded market," says Larrichio. "So we already feel we have a leg up there."

In addition, while its 2D iD and 2D iDx gel electrophoresis products provide a full array of functionality—it will image, cut, spot and digest proteins—the company understands that many customers might not need, or be willing to pay for, such full functionality. As a result, BioMachines is in the process of producing less-expensive tools that have one or two of these functions.

Perhaps most exciting for the company, say both Tetlow and Larrichio, is its on-going development of a product that incorporates the TMiD technology, but also includes MALDI spotting. "We're not there yet, but we are getting close," Larrichio notes. "We have heard from the market that if we can do this, it will really set us apart."