Pacific Biosciences Closes Acquisition of Omniome and Establishes San Diego Presence

Groundbreaking acquisition will enable PacBio to become a leader in both short-read and long-read sequencing accuracy

PacBio provides the most accurate long-read sequencing solutions with a strong commitment to the uncompromising pursuit of high-fidelity genomic data.¹

Omniome is a biotechnology company developing a highly differentiated and accurate short-read sequencing platform with the potential to advance cancer diagnostics, drive higher fidelity for single-cell applications, and broadly enable clinical sequencing.

Our combined teams and technology will offer a broad suite of solutions with a differentiated offering focused on value for high-growth clinical markets, and more.

differentiated technology

integrated product portfolio

most advanced solution to resolve biology

Our mission is to enable the promise of genomics to better human health

“Adding Omniome’s short-read sequencing technology to our long-read portfolio, will not only enable us to expand our total market opportunity, but will further accelerate the adoption of SMRT sequencing as we expect to reach more customers with a deeper product offering.”

PacBio’s CEO, Christian Henry, explains the significance of this announcement

With long reads and short reads, the possibilities are endless

Our teams operate with one guiding principle — the status quo is simply not good enough when it comes to the future of genomics. With Omniome, we hope to further enable:

Accuracy

Differentiated technology promises significant accuracy improvements over conventional NGS products.

Breadth

A combined portfolio of long-read and short-read sequencing technologies enables our customers to leverage our capabilities for their specific applications.

Opportunity

An improved limit of detection, customer flexibility, and less computational burden can enable results in research and clinical markets.

“We built Omniome because we believe improvements in short read accuracy are necessary for expansion of NGS clinical testing applications and/or confirmation of other technical approaches.”

— Richard Shen, President, Omniome

Accuracy matters — it’s the hallmark of who we are

Our focus on differentiated technology gives customers greater flexibility in applications where accuracy matters.

PacBio’s Hifi sequencing delivers long reads with the highest accuracy — even in hard-to-sequence regions.

Omniome’s novel short-read sequencing technology promises significant accuracy improvements over conventional NGS products.

Together, HiFi sequencing and Omniome sequencing will offer a broad suite of end-to-end solutions, including integrated bioinformatic capabilities.

Long-read sequencing + short-read sequencing

With long- and short-read sequencing, PacBio and Omniome’s combined portfolio paves the way to address a diverse set of applications, including but not limited to:

long plus short reads

We are better together

Creator of instruments based on Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT®) sequencing technology, enabling access to the full spectrum of genetic variation in any organism

  Founded in 2004

  ~492 employees

  Menlo Park, CA

Developing a proprietary DNA sequencing platform based on Sequencing by Binding (SBB), capable of delivering increased short-read accuracy

  Founded in 2013

  ~120 employees

  San Diego, CA

As opportunity grows, so do we

The completion of this acquisition adds a new presence for PacBio in San Diego. Building on the deep expertise of the PacBio team in our Bay Area global headquarters, this close expands our footprint and establishes an additional center of excellence for our growing family.

We have over 100 openings available in multiple locations throughout the U.S. and remote.

We're looking for talented, passionate individuals to join us. Interested in changing the world?

View our current openings

FAQ

Yes. See our press release.

Omniome is a San Diego-based biotechnology company developing a proprietary and highly differentiated short-read sequencing platform capable of delivering increased sequencing accuracy.

It is Omniome's mission to collaborate with the scientific community to deliver the world's most trusted short-read sequencing platform. To inquire about collaborations, please submit your interest on our website.

PacBio will remain steadfast and focused on delivering the world’s most advanced sequencing technologies and services. We are continuing to develop further improvements to HiFi and the Sequel IIe platform. We believe both HiFi and Omniome will address different scientific questions.

Our current plan is to continue to expand our Bay Area global headquarters, while also building and expanding our presence in San Diego. In this way, we will have access to two of the greatest genomics talent centers. Omniome employees will continue to work from their existing offices.

PacBio and Omniome are continuing to grow their employee base. Until the transaction is complete, the two entities will operate as separate businesses. Please apply here: https://www.pacb.com/company/careers/.