Jun 3, 2021
Unchained Labs adds industry vets to get big fast! Read more.
Unchained Labs adds industry vets to get big fast!
June 3, 2021 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life science tools company that’s all about getting biologics and gene therapy researchers the right tools for the job, today announced the additions of Tom O’Lenic as Chief Commercial Officer and Don Phelps as VP Finance.
Tom has been building successful life science tools companies since the 1990’s. He built and led sales teams at Molecular Devices before becoming General Manager of the entire business after it was acquired. He then led the sequencing unit and commercial operations for IntegenX. From there he became the Chief Commercial Officer of Advanced Cell Diagnostics and again became the General Manager of the business after it was acquired.
Don was Director of Finance for ProteinSimple before it was acquired. He stayed with the business after acquisition and helped scale the finance and accounting team of the division to support over $200M in revenue. He then led the Finance and Operations team at Intabio from initial scale up through the sale of the business.
“We are completely focused on getting big fast, and we need people in our tribe who know how to do that,” said Tim Harkness, Founder and CEO of Unchained. “Tom and Don are those people. I have known them both for over a decade and I am thrilled to have them join the Unchained tribe for the next phase of our journey. I know they will help us scale and navigate the challenges of the hyper growth to come.”
Tom and Don said in unison, “We are totally stoked to join the Unchained tribe!”
About Unchained Labs
Here’s the deal. We’re all about helping biologics and gene therapy researchers break free from tools that just don’t cut it. Unleashing problem-tackling products that make a huge difference in the real science they do every day. That’s our mantra, our promise and we own it. We’re located in Pleasanton, CA and can be found online at www.unchainedlabs.com.
Contact:
Taegen Clary
VP of Marketing, Unchained Labs
Taegen.clary@unchainedlabs.com
925.587.9800
Download PDF of the press release.
Apr 26, 2021
The Carlyle Group to acquire rapidly growing life sciences tools company Unchained Labs Read more.
The Carlyle Group to acquire rapidly growing life sciences tools company Unchained Labs
April 26, 2021 – Pleasanton, CA – Global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) today announced that it has agreed to acquire the rapidly growing life sciences tools company Unchained Labs for $435 million, in partnership with its management team, from Novo Holdings A/S, Canaan Partners and TPG Biotech. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in Q2 2021.
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Pleasanton, CA, Unchained Labs is a life science tools company focused on solving problems for biologics and gene therapy researchers. Unchained systems are used by biopharma researchers around the world to analyze and characterize large, complex molecules and to make their research jobs easier. Unchained has 170 employees and expects to generate over $75 million of revenue in 2021.
“This is a great day in the history of Unchained Labs,” said Tim Harkness, Unchained Labs Founder and CEO. “The Unchained team has solved a ton of problems for researchers over the past few years, but we are just beginning to scratch the surface of the biologics and gene therapy opportunity. I am thrilled to welcome Carlyle as our new partner! They have the team, the vision, the conviction, the experience, and the capital to help us accelerate organic and inorganic growth and realize our full potential. I have never been more optimistic about our future and I am truly excited about joining Carlyle for the next part of our journey.”
“Unchained Labs sits at the intersection of one of the most attractive sectors in healthcare, life science tools, and its fastest growing end market, biopharma,” said Steve Wise, Global Head of Healthcare at Carlyle. “With strong industry tailwinds, we believe Unchained Labs has significant growth opportunities and we’re excited to support another founder-backed business to scale through investments in research and development, digitization and geographic expansion.”
“In the midst of the genomic revolution, Unchained Labs is on a mission to bring highly innovative products that are critical to drug development to researchers globally,” said Robert Schmidt, a Managing Director specializing in healthcare investing at Carlyle. “We look forward to partnering with Tim and his impressive management team as they help their pharma and biotech customers work on critical scientific discoveries and accelerate the Company’s aggressive growth plans.”
The investment in Unchained Labs is a continuation of Carlyle’s long-term global commitment to healthcare, in which it has invested more than $16 billion of equity since inception. Equity capital for the investment came from Carlyle Partners VII, an $18.5 billion fund that makes majority and strategic minority investments primarily in the U.S. in targeted industries, including healthcare.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as financial advisor and Cooley LLP acted as legal counsel to Unchained Labs. Citi acted as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal counsel to Carlyle.
About the Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. With $246 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2020, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and communities in which we live and invest. The Carlyle Group employs 1,825 people in 29 offices across five continents. Further information is available at www.carlyle.com. Follow The Carlyle Group on Twitter @OneCarlyle.
About Unchained Labs
Here’s the deal. We’re all about helping researchers break free from tools that just don’t cut it. Unleashing problem-tackling products that make a huge difference in the real science they do every day. That’s our mantra, our promise and we own it. We’re located in Pleasanton, CA and can be found online at www.unchainedlabs.com.
Carlyle Contact:
Brittany Berliner
Brittany.berliner@carlyle.com
+1(212) 813-4839
Unchained Labs Contact:
Tim Harkness
Founder and CEO
tim.harkness@unchainedlabs.com
+1(925) 587-9800
Download PDF of the press release.
Apr 1, 2021
Unchained Labs makes another big splash with Big Tuna in gene therapy and vaccines! Read more.
Unchained Labs makes another big splash with Big Tuna in gene therapy and vaccines!
April 1, 2021 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting researchers the right tool for the job, launched its new gene therapy and vaccine applications on the Big Tuna platform today. Big Tuna is already the ultimate buffer exchange platform for biologics, and now it can take on buffer exchange, concentration and clean-up of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) and lipid nanoparticles (LNPs).
AAVs are produced at low concentrations and need to be concentrated up for characterization. LNPs are made in the presence of ethanol which needs to be cleared out quickly to keep them stable. Both are tough to handle due to their large size and how fast their buffers flow through filtration membranes. Big Tuna’s new high molecular weight cutoff plates, concentration application and tunable pressure settings make it perfectly dialed in for these molecules.
“The use of AAVs and LNPs for gene therapies and vaccines is literally booming,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “Researchers developing these complex molecules need better tools to clean them up, concentrate to dosable levels and get them into formulations that solve cold chain issues. With the new features on Big Tuna, researchers can now fully automate these steps in their workflow and ditch the slow and manual ways of the past.”
About Unchained Labs
Here’s the deal. We’re all about helping researchers break free from tools that just don’t cut it. Unleashing problem-tackling products that make a huge difference in the real science they do every day. That’s our mantra, our promise and we own it. We’re located in Pleasanton, CA and can be found online at www.unchainedlabs.com.
Contact:
Taegen Clary
VP of Marketing, Unchained Labs
taegen.clary@unchainedlabs.com
925.587.9800
Download PDF of press release.
Jan 11, 2021
Unchained Labs sticks it to viruses, launches new mRNA vaccine application on Stunner! Read more.
Unchained Labs sticks it to viruses, launches new mRNA vaccine application on Stunner!
January 11, 2021 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting researchers the right tool for the job, launched its new mRNA vaccine application on Stunner today. Stunner is the only platform that can simultaneously quantify the total amount of mRNA and measure the size distribution of lipid nanoparticles – two critical qualities of these novel vaccines.
Stunner’s super short pathlength for UV/Vis and DLS makes it the perfect tool for measuring both the mRNA concentration and the lipid nanoparticle (LNP) size in these typically cloudy samples. It gets it done straight up, with no dilutions, completely label-free and can crank through 96 samples in an hour using only 2 µL of these very precious samples.
“LNPs need to be just the right size to deliver mRNA for a solid immune response,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “Researchers working on these challenging molecules are in urgent need of better analytical tools that can keep up with their crazy pace. Stunner is the accurate, hassle-free, high-throughput quantification and sizing platform they’ve been thirsting for.”
About Unchained Labs
Here’s the deal. We’re all about helping researchers break free from tools that just don’t cut it. Unleashing problem-tackling products that make a huge difference in the real science they do every day. That’s our mantra, our promise and we own it. We’re located in Pleasanton, CA and can be found online at www.unchainedlabs.com.
Contact:
Taegen Clary
VP of Marketing, Unchained Labs
taegen.clary@unchainedlabs.com
925.587.9806
Download PDF of press release.
Oct 6, 2020
Unchained Labs launches the ultimate gene therapy tool; tackle AAV titer, empty/full ratio and more with Stunner! Read more.
Unchained Labs launches the ultimate gene therapy tool; tackle AAV titer, empty/full ratio and more with Stunner!
October 6, 2020 – Pleasanton, CA – Unchained Labs, the life sciences company that’s all about getting researchers the right tool for the job, launched its new gene therapy quantification application on Stunner today. Stunner is the first platform that gives researchers a full read-out on how many AAV capsids they have, how many are packed with DNA and if there is aggregation – in less than a minute using only 2 µL of sample.
Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) used in gene therapies are hard to manufacture and tough to characterize. Researchers need to be able to quickly and accurately measure their capsid titer, and how many of them are full of DNA they are supposed to deliver to cells. Other methods that gather this info require labels, dyes, reagents, standard curves or use a lot of sample. Pulling it all together is a big lift and takes way too long with existing technologies.
Stunner makes AAV titer a snap. Researchers just pipette 2 µL of their sample, up to 96 samples per run, and then Stunner takes it from there. UV/Vis measures the total protein and DNA in the sample. Dynamic light scattering identifies AAV capsids based on their size and checks for aggregation. Stunner then combines all this information to provide an accurate titer and empty/full ratio.
“Gene therapy researchers are hungry for better tools and Stunner delivers all the data they need,” said Taegen Clary, VP of Marketing at Unchained Labs. “No other instrument quantifies AAV capsids, both full and empty, and can see aggregates. These complex molecules demand that traditional techniques be reimagined or combined to provide better insights, and with Stunner’s AAV application we’ve done both.”
About Unchained Labs
Here’s the deal. We’re all about helping researchers break free from tools that just don’t cut it. Unleashing problem-tackling products that make a huge difference in the real science they do every day. That’s our mantra, our promise and we own it. We’re located in Pleasanton, CA and can be found online at www.unchainedlabs.com.
Contact:
Taegen Clary
VP of Marketing, Unchained Labs
taegen.clary@unchainedlabs.com
925.587.9806
Download PDF of press release.
