Largest university spin out acquisition in the history of the Irish State

When UL spin-out company, Stokes Bio was sold to Life Technologies for $44million in 2010 it marked the largest university spin out acquisitions in the history of the Irish State. Stokes Bio was founded by UL researchers Professor Mark Davies and Dr Tara Dalton of the Stokes Institute who pioneered micro-fluidic systems for genetic analysis. Through their research, Professor Davies and Dr Dalton developed the technology to produce instrumentation delivering much higher genome data throughput at a lower cost and their work highlighted the strength and diversity of the growing indigenous biotechnology industry in Ireland. The company initially attracted a €1million investment by the Bank of Ireland Kernel Venture Capital Fund as well as being backed by Enterprise Ireland and the University of Limerick.