Genome Explorations Expands Into Europe
February 2003 - MEMPHIS BUSINESS JOURNAL
SCOTT SHEPARD

Genome Explorations has extended its reach into continental Europe and the subcontinent, giving the small Memphis company nearly a global reach. And to help handle the growth, it has recruited biochemist Robert Rooney from Duke University to serve as its new scientific director.

Genome Explorations provides genetic assays for scientists. It's a revolutionary approach to research. Instead of looking at the behavior of a single gene, scientists can FedEx a tissue sample to Memphis and get back a report showing the hundred of genes that are active, and to what degree.

"This technology compresses five years of work into a couple of days," Rooney says. "It changes what kinds of questions we can ask."

Demand for the service is so intense that the company was profitable within months of opening. Founder Divyen Patel was a peer of Rooney's when they both worked at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

The company already has a relationship with ExPressOn Biosystems, of Edinburgh, Scotland. That's enhanced by a distributor agreement with Sluofarma, of Bordeaux, France.

"They're going to represent Genome Explorations for our European presence, with assay marketing and sales," Patel says. "Instead of opening an office in Europe we decided to go with a company that's already there, and calling on the same people we would be."

The intensity of research in Europe is just a shadow of what takes place in the U.S. Plus, the funding does not exist to create the infrastructure of something like Genome Explorations, Rooney says. But there are still scientists toiling in labs, asking questions that can be answered from Memphis.

As scientific director, Rooney is responsible for day-to-day management of the lab, plus review of the results of computer analysis. Others have the same technology as Genome Explorations, but the success has come from Patel's ability to interpret the results.

"We have computer analysis, plus experience and intuition," Rooney says. "Like medicine, this is part science and part art."

He'll be assisted by Michelle Sims, a research analyst with 18 years' experience in invitro fertilization, although those skills don't translate to her new job.