Our First Exit

In late 2021, we celebrated our first exit from Fund I when Thermo Fisher Scientific acquired the precision medicine startup Combinati.

Combinati's innovative technology, a digital PCR (dPCR) machine, beautifully simplifies the process of absolute quantification by digitizing reagents with minimal sample loss, fast result times and best-in-class consistency. The benchtop instrument is already in use by biotech companies and academic institutions for the monitoring of cancerous mutations in biopsies. Its use cases also extend to precise quantification of gene inserts for cell therapy development, as well as earlier identification of genetic conditions in newborns.

Combinati came into the national spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic when wastewater served as a crucial indicator of regional contamination and infection trends. In response, Combinati released a water-based epidemiology (WBE) solution that allowed researchers to detect trace amounts of COVID-19 in samples, including highly complex wastewater samples. The platform, known as Absolute Q Digital PCR, was leveraged by several academic and research institutions nationwide for quantitative longitudinal monitoring of the coronavirus.

Co-Founder and CEO Paul Hung is an expert in microfluidics and quantification. After receiving his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley, he co-founded CellASIC, a microfluidics platform for cell- and tissue-based applications. He now supports Thermo Fisher’s Digital PCR efforts.