Illumina, Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos launched startup GRAIL

Illumina, the world’s largest DNA sequencing company announced the launch of thestartup named GRAIL to develop blood-based cancer tests.

• The company was launched in association with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo’s venture fund Bezos Expeditions and Arch Venture Partners.

Key Highlights

• GRAIL will operate from San Diego in California, USA.
• The company will develop blood tests that cost $1000 or less for detecting many types of cancer before symptoms arise.
• The test, which is also called as liquid biopsy, will use high-speed DNA sequencing machines.
• All the partners in the startup raised around 100 million US dollars among themselves, in which Illumina will have the majority stake holder.
• The newly developed tests are expected to reach the market by 2019.