Lion Bioscience AG

Last year, several scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratories(EMBL), a research organization in Heidelberg, Germany which supports 15 European states, were mulling over the idea of commercializing its bioinformatics work. At about the same time, a different group from the same scientific research organization was looking for ways to commercialize its sequencing technology. Yet another group, outside EMBL, planned to start a company in the field of genomics. The three parties began to talk and agreed to join forces. Lion Bioscience AG was born this winter to offer bioinformatics and sequencing services to pharmaceutical and industrial corporations and scientific research organizations. Lion is the first start-up built around EMBL technologies.

The founders were convinced that the combined groups would be in a better position to cover the full spectrum of...