DCU sells campus company - 'Slidepath'
1 May 2009

Dr Donal O’Shea

DCU’s technology transfer centre, Invent, has announced the acquisition of its campus company, Slidepath, by the UK Genetix Group plc. This success of SlidePath validates DCU’s emphasis on translational research and is just one of a number of companies taking technology developed by DCU to the marketplace across a range of disciplines. Translational research is of paramount importance in DCU’s strategy which aims to make a meaningful contribution to building Ireland’s knowledge economy.

SlidePath was founded in 2003 by two DCU academics, Dr Donal O’Shea and Dr Sean Costello from the School of Biotechnology and now has 25 employees and more than 60 customers in 10 countries, including the UK, US, Ireland, Germany, France and Australia. The company is located in the Invent Centre, DCU whose remit is to transform knowledge into commercial success and to provide the critical link between the university campus and the marketplace*. Invent was founded by DCU, Enterprise Ireland and AIB in 2001.

Dr Donal O’Shea, Chief Executive of SlidePath said, “We are excited to be joining forces with Genetix, a company which has an excellent track record in product innovation and has built a high quality customer base and global infrastructure. The combined company will have many synergistic opportunities, a stronger market position and capital structure to be able to execute on its strategic growth initiatives. We believe this is an excellent fit”. Dr O’Shea and Dr Costello will remain with the company and continue to lead the business as Chief Executive Officer and Head of Customer Relations respectively.

SlidePath had developed a niche in the analysis, management and web enabled image viewing of tissue and cellular samples for the growing digital pathology market.

This technology has a number of applications, ranging from clinical laboratories, clinical trials, drug discovery, training and academia. The slides can be used to microscopically examine tissue samples to identify indicators of disease.

While the process for examining slides has remained unchanged for over a century, numerous opportunities have now arisen due to advances in technology which allow for digital pathology outside of the purely clinical setting. These include the training of pathologists, cytologists, haematologists, and the support of clinical research in the academic and pharmaceutical settings.

SlidePath’s competencies in cell imaging analysis software are aligned to Genetix’ core skills in imaging and image analysis which enables Genetix to build a stronger platform to offer a broader mix of products for the digital pathology market.

Commenting on the acquisition, Charles de Rohan, Chief Executive of Genetix said, “This transaction brings together two companies with highly complementary core skills that will greatly strengthen our competitive position in the growing digital pathology market. Combining Genetix’ global infrastructure with SlidePath’s leading-edge products and technologies will allow us to offer compelling new products and enhance our existing product ranges. We are impressed by the skill and expertise of SlidePath’s employees and believe that this investment will further solidify Genetix’ position in this exciting growth market as well as enhancing shareholder value.”

Richard Stokes, Director of Invent DCU stated that, “The success of SlidePath demonstrates the relevance of technologies that are emanating from Dublin City University, which have a strong market focus and play a significant role in job creation. We look forward to many more start up companies from DCU’s research”.

About Genetix Group plc

Headquartered in New Milton, UK, with offices in the UK, US, Germany and Japan, and quoted on the AIM (GTX: AIM), Genetix provides scientists and clinicians with unrivalled solutions for imaging and intelligent image analysis in the life science and diagnostic markets. Genetix is committed to the continual development of innovative solutions in these areas.