Paragon Genomics, a life science company dedicated to improving critical upfront target enrichment and library preparation workflows for Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), closed its oversubscribed Series A funding round which was led by Cowin Venture Capital and Fosun Industrial Co., Limited. Additional investors were Cloudstone Venture, HEDA Ventures, and Wisemont Capital.

"With this funding, we will develop additional NGS assay products, particularly in the oncology and precision medicine space, and expand our United States commercial team. Our CleanPlex(TM) technology has been adopted by more than 50 NGS labs globally including groups from the University of California, USDA, CDC, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Annoroad Gene Technology. We are expanding our global footprint into Europe, Asia and South America via partnerships and distributorships. CleanPlex(TM) technology has proven advantages when dealing with low DNA input and degraded samples. Our mission is to provide NGS labs with the best products and services and ultimately make CleanPlex(TM) technology the gold standard in targeted sequencing," said Tao Chen, CEO of Paragon Genomics.

In a recent interview with Scott Geib PhD, Research Entomologist at USDA-ARS, he explained why CleanPlex(TM) technology was adopted. "We were looking for a 'future proof method', a better way to do high throughput screening at a species level diagnosis. Paragon Genomics has developed a rapid 2.5-hour library preparation allowing multi-gene methodology, letting us look at lots of unique loci across multiple genomes. It offers a 'one and done' approach instead of many different disconnected experiments."

As an early customer of the Company, Dr. Chongjian Chen, CEO of Annoroad stated that, "superb technical and customer support, combined with fast design, resulted in a high-quality NGS custom panel. CleanPlex(TM) technology is fast and easy to use with great multiplex PCR uniformity and on-target rate."

About Paragon Genomics:
Paragon Genomics was selected by a distinguished panel into the California Life Science Association F.A.S.T. Program in March 2016 and accepted into the prestigious Stanford StartX Accelerator Program in September 2016.