PACB

Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc.

A biotech company that builds machines for reading the long stretches of DNA that make up genes, known as PacBio. Its sequencers use a technology that "eavesdrops" on a single enzyme as it copies DNA, watching each letter being added in real time — used in medical research, agriculture, and microbiology. It was founded in 2004 as Nanofluidics, Inc., renamed Pacific Biosciences of California in 2005 after its home on the Pacific Coast, and launched its first commercial sequencer, the PacBio RS, in 2010.