Given the ho-hum attitude investors have shown toward population genetics, Xenon Genetics' $45 million private placement is notable. Now that the dust has settled on two of the older companies in the field, deCode Genetics and Gemini Genomics, which went public in July 2000, it is clear that the market gives them little technology value. But Xenon believes it can differentiate itself by the breadth of its data, which come from 28 populations, and its product-oriented approach.

New technologies enable the rapid processing of genetic information, but since gene data isn't associated with specific diseases and diseased tissues, in and of itself it isn't clinically useful. A new breed of start-ups aims to provide both the phenotypic and genotypic sides of the equation by creating databases of patients and patient samples. Still unclear is how much drug firms will pay for disease-associated gene data; genetics firms are taking various approaches to monetizing their databases, from focusing initially on high-value diagnostics to creating true target-discovery businesses, to selling their data along with associated software and services. There are also ethical issues to hammer out. The new companies must take care to protect patients' rights. They must consider the need for explicit consent to use the information collected from patients, especially when they are participating in research whose purpose is as yet undefined.

In Vivo summarizes the technologies of several recently founded companies: Avantium B.V., a joint venture of GSE Systems, Shell International Chemical, SmithKline Beecham, WR Grace & Co. and three Dutch universities, will employ high-speed experimentation and simulation technologies to speed product development in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Framingham Genomic Medicine will assemble, analyze and expand data from the Framingham Heart Study and make it available to pharmaceutical companies to aid in their drug discovery and development efforts. Ireland's HiberGen Ltd. will use SNaPIT, its proprietary SNP genotyping platform, to identify "disease genes" and conduct pharmacogenomic analysis in the development of individualized therapeutics and diagnostics. iMEDD Inc. will create therapeutic microdevices for delivering drugs directly to the part of the body where they are needed. Using a genomic based drug discovery platform licensed from Brown University, Nemogen Inc. will create pharmaceuticals for enhancing memory and learning. PointDX Inc. is developing integrated imaging analysis and reporting software which it claims will produce faster, cheaper, more accurate radiology reports than the current dictation or future voice recognition processes allow.