Dharmacon Inc., now known as Dharmacon, was founded in 1995 by Stephen Scaringe as Dharmacon Research to develop and commercialize a new technology for

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyrib ...

oligonucleotide synthesis Oligonucleotide synthesis is the chemical synthesis of relatively short fragments of nucleic acids with defined chemical structure (sequence). The technique is extremely useful in current laboratory practice because it provides a rapid and inexpens ...

. Originally, the company's focus was to develop 2'-ACE

technology as the standard for RNA synthesis and to advance RNA oligo-dependent applications and technologies. When

RNA interference RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known by ...

(RNAi) emerged in the late 1990s, Dharmacon was poised to provide

RNAi RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known b ...

-related products to the multitude of academic and industry researchers. Dharmacon has become an important resource for those investigating the mechanisms of

siRNA Small interfering RNA (siRNA), sometimes known as short interfering RNA or silencing RNA, is a class of double-stranded non-coding RNA molecules, typically 20–24 base pairs in length, similar to microRNA (miRNA), and operating within the RN ...

(small interfering RNA)-induced

gene knockdown Gene knockdown is an experimental technique by which the expression of one or more of an organism's genes is reduced. The reduction can occur either through genetic modification or by treatment with a reagent such as a short DNA or RNA oligonucleot ...

and applying the specificity and potency of

to human biotherapeutics. Dharmacon's expertise in

bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ...

, RNA biology, and synthesis chemistry has allowed it to develop a complete line of products for the

researcher.

History

In November 2002, Dharmacon Research, Inc. officially changed its name to Dharmacon, Inc., as it had advanced beyond research and development and into whole solutions for RNA oligo-dependent applications and technologies. In March 2004, Dharmacon became a wholly owned subsidiary of

Fisher Scientific Fisher Scientific International, Inc. (NYSE: FSH) was a laboratory supply and biotechnology company that provided products and services to the global scientific research and clinical laboratory markets until its merger with Thermo Electron in 20 ...

International, Inc. In November 2006,

International, Inc. merged with Thermo Electron Corporation to become

Thermo Fisher Scientific Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is an American life science and clinical research company. It is a global supplier of analytical instruments, clinical development solutions, specialty diagnostics, laboratory, pharmaceutical and biotechnology s ...

. In April 2013, Thermo Fisher Scientific reached an agreement to buy Life Technologies Corporation. The acquisition of Life Technologies Corporation received conditional approval from the European Commission in November 2013. The conditional requirement was the divestment of Thermo Fisher Scientific's cell culture (sera and media), magnetic beads and Dharmacon gene modulation businesses for antitrust reasons. In early January 2014, GE Healthcare reached an agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific to acquire the cell culture, magnetic bead and Dharmacon gene modulation businesses for US$1.05 billion. The acquisition of Dharmacon is viewed as complementary to GE Healthcare's drug discovery research technologies. In the fall of 2014, GE Healthcare announced it had reached a licensing agreement with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard granting access to CRISPR-Cas9 intellectual property. Under the agreement, GE Healthcare is able to incorporate the patented technologies, and develop and launch additional complementary gene editing reagents. Then, in October 2014, GE Healthcare Dharmacon launched its first CRISPR-Cas9 genome engineering products under the “Edit-R” brand. In July 2015, GE Healthcare Dharmacon launched synthetic crRNA and lentiviral sgRNA pre-designed with a functionally validated algorithm against entire human, mouse and rat genomes. In July 2017, UK firm Horizon Discovery reached an agreement to acquire Dharmacon from GE Healthcare for a total consideration of $85 million. The acquisition is expected to complement Horizon's portfolio of gene editing products and engineered cell lines.

References

{{reflist Research support companies Companies based in Colorado Biotechnology companies established in 1995 Biotechnology companies of the United States 1995 establishments in Colorado