A genetic testing laboratory recruited to the state in 2011 with help from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center is about to expand.

The Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicine, a $19 million Morrisville laboratory opened in 2012, will be taking over operations of a sister lab that the company is closing in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

San Diego-based Sequenom Inc. chose the North Carolina site in a selection process that narrowed to North Carolina and Texas. The company said it finally decided to take advantage of North Carolina’s relatively low costs of doing business and its highly trained bioscience workforce. At the time, Sequenom said it intended to ultimately employ some 242 people at the Morrisville site, qualifying for state job-creation incentives.

The company has not said what impact it expects on North Carolina employment as a result of the Michigan shut-down .

“The Biotechnology Center, in partnership with other economic development organizations, worked closely with Sequenom to establish its lab in North Carolina,” said Bill Bullock, MBA, NCBiotech’s vice president of bioscience industrial development.

Test mainly detects prenatal problems

“The company’s growth in the Triangle is validation of those efforts, and of the growing opportunity that molecular diagnostics offers the state.”

Sequenom’s molecular diagnostics laboratory tests are mainly for detecting prenatal problems. These genetic tests, branded under the names HerediT, HerediT UNIVERSAL, MaterniT21 PLUS, NextView and VisibiliT, provide early information about possible problems to allow obstetricians, geneticists, and maternal fetal medicine specialists to consult with expectant parents.

The company said it will discontinue its SensiGene Fetal RHD Genotyping test as part of the laboratory consolidation, adding that the test has “not been material to the company’s financial results.”

Sequenom said the change will add the company’s HerediT CF test, to detect cystic fibrosis carrier genes, to the Morrisville site.

“The expansion of our North Carolina laboratory operations to include our HerediT CF carrier screen test will enable us to continue to provide high quality and meaningful test offerings to physicians and their patients while continuing to build value for our shareholders,” said William Welch, president and CEO of the publicly traded company.

Sequenom said it will provide transition services and outplacement assistance to the Michigan employees affected by the closure.

– See more at: http://www.ncbiotech.org/article/sequenom-moving-michigan-lab-testing-nc/79866#sthash.6dZVMpxi.dpuf