Spiral Genetics

Spiral Genetics, founded in 2009, operated in the bioinformatics sector, providing software solutions for large-scale genomic data analysis. The company was established by Adina Mangubat, who served as CEO, and Becky Drees. Mangubat, a University of Washington psychology graduate, co-founded the company at the age of 22, driven by the vision of a future where the cost of DNA sequencing would plummet, necessitating powerful tools to analyze the resulting massive datasets. Her co-founder, Becky Drees, was a molecular biologist with a Ph.D. whom Mangubat met during an entrepreneurship course.

The firm developed cloud-based bioinformatics software designed to process and analyze next-generation sequencing data for clients in medical, pharmaceutical, and agricultural research. Its core product, the BioGraph Engine, was engineered to handle the complexities of large-scale genome sequencing projects, particularly those using Illumina's technology. This engine could preprocess raw DNA sequence data, identify genetic variations including structural variants, and create dynamic graph references of variation within a population. This functionality was aimed at enabling novel discoveries for diagnostics and drug development by comparing large populations of whole human genomes. Revenue was generated through the sale of licenses for its software.

The company's history is marked by several distinct phases. After its founding, it secured a $3 million Series A funding round in March 2013, led by DFJ. This was followed by a strategic acquisition in January 2017 by Omicia, a Bay-Area bioinformatics company, for an undisclosed sum. The goal of the merger was to create an integrated, end-to-end solution, combining Spiral's raw data analysis with Omicia's capabilities in generating reports for clinicians and researchers. However, a differing vision regarding the company's focus led CEO Adina Mangubat to orchestrate an "un-acquisition" and relaunch Spiral Genetics as an independent entity in 2019. This relaunch was supported by participation in the Y Combinator accelerator and a partnership with Microsoft to apply machine learning to predict cardiovascular disease by analyzing large genomic datasets on the Azure cloud platform. Despite these efforts, the company is now listed as out of business.

Keywords: bioinformatics, genomic data analysis, next-generation sequencing, DNA sequencing software, population genomics, structural variant detection, Adina Mangubat, Y Combinator, cloud-based genomics, genetic data mining, medical research, pharmaceutical research, agricultural genomics, BioGraph Engine, Omicia, Fabric Genomics, Microsoft Azure, clinical genomics, drug discovery, personalized medicine