By Matthew Willett

Lynx Therapeutics Inc. completed an $11.1 million private financing, placing 1.7 million newly issued shares priced at $6.37 per share.

The funding was self-managed, and the round was led by HBK Master Fund LP. The funds will be used, Lynx said, to finance research and development activities as well as ongoing commercial and business development.

The funding focus, Lynx said, will be the continuing development of its Megatype and Protein ProFiler technologies.

Megatype, a single nucleotide polymorphism analysis system, allows researchers to directly find disease- or trait-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that differentiate large populations of genomes without individual genotyping by using a single experiment, the company said.

Protein ProFiler, Lynx CEO and President Norrie Russell said, aims to improve upon the outdated 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis systems currently in use for protein separation.

¿Protein ProFiler is what we¿re developing as an alternative to 2-D gel electrophoresis, and these two [focuses] are key areas in the post-genomic era,¿ Russell told BioWorld Today. ¿Human genetic variance and proteomics, I think, put us in a very favorable position with fundamental groundbreaking technology this year.¿

Protein ProFiler, he said, promises to be everything 2-D gel electrophoresis isn¿t: quantitative, reproducible and high throughput. Interest in the system, he said, is ¿burgeoning.¿

¿We¿ve reduced MPSS [Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing] technology and Megasort to commercial practice, and they¿re a commercial success, but the world needs a technology to deliver pharmacogenetic SNP analysis techniques, and I think that¿s what Megatype offers,¿ he said. ¿The world absolutely needs an alternative to 2-D gels. Proteomics has always been important, but it¿s increasingly so now. Proteomics is shackled by 2-D gel electrophoresis.¿

Lynx expects to commercialize both products by the end of the year.

Financially, Edward Albini, Lynx¿s chief financial officer, said, the funding puts the company on solid footing.

¿This is a nice infusion of cash for us, and we¿ll be evaluating other opportunities as time goes on,¿ Albini said. ¿One of the things, also, that we¿re looking for is cash coming from customers and collaborators under existing deals and new business.¿

The company reported cash and equivalents of $11.9 million on March 31, with a net loss for the first quarter of $5.7 million. It had 11.5 million shares outstanding. Lynx estimated its revenues for the year would be between $20 million and $25 million.

Lynx¿s stock (NASDAQ:LYNX) fell 50 cents Friday, closing at $7.06.