The perception that biomarkers will be key to unlocking the potential of precision medicine is so popular that they are now seen as an essential part of the drug development armory.

Cambridge Epigenetix is a University of Cambridge spin-out and is financed by the likes of Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Syncona. Its strong financial base owes to a science base stemming from the work of Sir Shankar Balasubramanian, the co-founder of Solexa and co-developer of Illumina dye sequencing, a technique used to determine the series of base pairs in DNA.

Sir Shankar developed a range of products, named TrueMethyl, for looking at true methylation. This removes hydroxymethylation from the methylation signature and allows users to look at both, which isn't possible in traditional bisulphate conversion. This method has become the gold standard in epigenetics research and Cambridge Epigenetix was incorporated to commercialize that product.

The company has had a lot of researchers use the products which has added to the knowledge of epigenetics and epigenetic modifications in particular. In the future, this may be useful in potentially diagnosing disease.