Cofactor Genomics: A Sequencing Service Company Emerges from the Technology Development Laboratory

Abstract

Cofactor Genomics is based in St. Louis, MO and provides sequencing and analysis services to academic and industry clients. We are a small company committed to changing the service sequencing paradigm by offering our customers front-to-back solutions; experimental design, next-generation sequencing, and advanced analytics for their work. Cofactor Genomics was founded by individuals with one-of-a-kind experience in Next-Generation sequencing technology development. The Cofactor Genomics executive team spent a collective 35 years working in the Technology Development Group at The Genome Center at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. From early 2004 to late 2008, their primary responsibilities within the group were to investigate, evaluate and develop both wet-lab and computational applications for emerging Next-Generation sequencing technology platforms. Their experience began with beta testing the 454 Life Sciences (now Roche) GS 20, continued with beta testing the first serial numbered instrument from Solexa (now Illumina), and culminated with beta testing the Applied Biosystems (now Life Technologies) SOLiD instrument. Our individual experiences were unique within the realm of next-generation sequencing technology, thus extremely complimentary for a consolidation and commercialization of skill sets; Matt Hickenbotham became a renowned expert in library construction and Next-Gen instrumentation, Jon Armstrong emerged as an expert in targeted and reduced representation genomic sequencing, and Ryan Richt and Dr. Jarret Glasscock were two of the first individuals in the world to characterize the data generated by these instruments. It is this early-access wet-lab and computational experience with these disruptive sequencing technologies that provided the foundation for operations at Cofactor Genomics. Cofactor Genomics has been in operation for 2 years and has already established a proven track record of capability, versatility, remarkably consistent high quality data generation, and delivering custom data analysis solutions. We constructed 268 different sequencing libraries in our first year spanning nearly every sequencing application and multiple Next-Gen instrument platforms. This feat would be impossible for any firm other than Cofactor to complete in such a short time frame, much to the credit of our highly skilled and talented team. We pooled our talents to form a company offering customers end-to-end sequencing solutions that ultimately allow them to concentrate on what they do best, breakthrough research.