Il­lu­mi­na's found­ing sci­en­tist launch­es soft­ware start­up to track fast-mu­tat­ing hos­pi­tal bugs

A tech com­pa­ny launched by one of Il­lu­mi­na’s found­ing sci­en­tists is step­ping out of stealth mode to­day with gene se­quenc­ing soft­ware it says can mon­i­tor the spread of in­fec­tious dis­ease — par­tic­u­lar­ly fast-evolv­ing strains dif­fi­cult to keep tabs on in hos­pi­tals.

The com­pa­ny, called Arc Bio, is led by Todd Dick­in­son — a guy you might rec­og­nize from his his­to­ry in the ge­nomics busi­ness. He was the first sci­en­tist em­ployed by Il­lu­mi­na back in 1998, and he stuck around with the se­quenc­ing gi­ant for near­ly 13 years in vary­ing lead­er­ship roles. He was re­cruit­ed out of Il­lu­mi­na back in 2010 to work at Bio­Nano (an­oth­er San Diego se­quenc­ing com­pa­ny worth putting on your radar).

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