Illumina, Inc. (Illumina) was fairly extensively involved in SBIR from very soon after being founded in 1998 until the firm outgrew size requirements by about 2006. However, the firm has maintained strong connections with younger, smaller firms on interest - several being SBIR-involved - establishing various types of working relationship and - in a few cases - actaully acquiring the smaller player. Originally anchored in having secured exclusive worldwide rights to 13 patents and patent applications from Tufts University that were filed by one of the company's directors, Illumina develops and manufactures life science tools and integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and function. Organized in two business segments, the Life Sciences and Diagnostics business unit includes all products and services related to the research market, namely the product lines based on its sequencing, BeadArray, VeraCode, and real-time PCR technologies. The firm's Diagnostics business unit focuses on molecular diagnostics. Customers include genomic research centers, academic institutions, government laboratories, and clinical research organizations, as well as pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agrigenomics, and consumer genomics companies.
