Agilent Technologies makes $21m investment in Gen9

Agilent Technologies has announced that it has made a strategic investment of $21 million (13.6 million pounds) in Gen9, a developer of scalable technologies for synthesising genes.

Gen9 offers a portfolio of next-generation gene synthesis technologies that allow high-throughput automated production of DNA constructs to be carried out with a lower cost and higher accuracy than existing methods.

Using Agilent's funding, the company will be able to further invest in product development and expand the commercial infrastructure of its synthetic biology business, while Agilent will receive an equity stake in Gen9 and a seat on its board of directors.

The deal will also see Gen9 adopt Agilent's Oligonucleotide Library Synthesis technology as part of its manufacturing processes.

Neil Cook, vice-president and director of Agilent Laboratories, said: "We believe that Gen9 has the correct strategy, technology, team and IP portfolio to complement Agilent's innovations in oligo library synthesis."

Agilent is one of the leading manufacturers of measurement solutions in the world, employing more than 20,500 people and generating $6.9 billion in global revenues last year.