Cepheid Inc.

Main Activity in Nanotechnology

Material Manufacturer

About Company

Cepheid develops, manufactures, and markets fully-integrated systems that perform genetic analysis, including DNA and RNA analysis, for the clinical genetic assessment, biothreat, and life sciences markets. Our systems enable rapid, sophisticated genetic testing of organisms by automating otherwise complex manual laboratory procedures.

Genetic testing involves a number of complicated steps, including sample preparation, amplification and detection. Based on state-of-the-art microfluidic and microelectronic technologies, our easy-to-use systems integrate these steps and analyze complex biological samples in our proprietary test cartridges. We are focusing our efforts on those applications where rapid genetic testing is particularly important, such as the infectious disease, cancer and biothreat testing markets.

Our SmartCycler® and GeneXpert® systems can perform a broad range of genetic tests that include identifying infectious organisms and evaluating at-risk populations for the early detection of disease. We have also adapted our systems to enable the rapid detection and identification of organisms that may serve as biothreat agents.

Cepheid recently acquired microRNA company Actigenics. With a strong bioinformatics capability, Actigenics is one of the leaders in the discovery of microRNAs, a newly identified class of RNAs that are closely involved in gene expression and regulation. Of about 1500 predicted microRNAs in the human genome, only a few hundred have been found to be expressed. Actigenics has one of the largest portfolios of validated microRNAs in the world having discovered 88 novel microRNAs to date.