REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 17, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Station X Inc., a company dedicated to simplifying the analysis and visualization of genome-scale data in clinical and research settings, today announced the closing of a second round of equity financing led by Runa Capital, an international venture capital firm. The $5 million round also included follow-on commitments from existing investors including Genomic Health. The company will use these funds to expand its team and accelerate the commercialization of GenePool™, a software-based biomarker discovery system for storing, analyzing and visualizing large-scale genomic data in translational research, diagnostic and pharmaceutical development, and clinical genome analysis.

Station X was founded in 2010, by Richard D. Goold, Ph.D., Tod M. Klingler, Ph.D., and Andrew R. MacBride. With this financing, Runa Capital partner Andre Bliznyuk will join the Station X Board of Directors which also includes company co-founders Drs. Goold and Klingler; Randall W. Scott, Ph.D., co-founder of Genomic Health (Nasdaq:GHDX) and Incyte Genomics (Nasdaq:INCY); and Roy A. Whitfield, Director at Illumina, Inc. (Nasdaq:ILMN) and former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Incyte Genomics.

"Cracking the genetic code requires a combination of computational power and smart people with diverse skills and backgrounds. We are excited to add Runa Capital's expertise in cloud computing to our existing team of investors who are among the most experienced business developers in the life sciences industry," said Dr. Goold. "This funding will immediately support the growth of our team and enable us to accelerate the commercial roll out of GenePool later this year."

"The critical success factor in developing clinical applications from large-scale genomic analysis remains the researchers' ability to effectively extract and validate complex information from large data sets across multiple genomes," added Dr. Scott. "Station X has developed the first platform explicitly designed to work with large cohorts of genomes, which is essential for the development of new genomic tests and for driving growth in the exciting new field of clinical genomic diagnostics."

The company's first product, GenePool, is designed for biomarker discovery with next-generation sequencing data, addressing an identified need in the clinical research market. GenePool supports multiple sequencing platforms, uses innovative search and analysis tools for finding expression and sequence variation markers, and provides clinical researchers with an intuitive browser-based interface, built-in statistical models, powerful filtering options and rich up-to-date data annotations.

"Station X is poised to become a leader in foundational software for clinical genomics and we are pleased to join Richard and his team at this exciting growth stage of their venture," said Mr. Bliznyuk. "Advances in cloud computing and internet technologies coupled with cost-effective sequencing have created an unprecedented opportunity to produce capital-efficient genomic information products that can be validated and scaled very rapidly."

For more information about Station X, please visit www.stationxinc.com.

About Station X

Station X develops software products for scientists and clinicians who work with large-scale human genome information in either a research or clinical setting, enabling them to extract maximal biological meaning from complex genomic data. Our first product, GenePool for Biomarker Discovery, has been designed in conjunction with a leading molecular diagnostics company and will support clinical trials and the interpretation of comprehensive genetic test panels. Station X is also working in partnership with translational and clinical research organizations seeking to integrate next-generation sequencing data into their routine workflows. Station X can be found online at: www.stationxinc.com.

About Runa Capital

Runa Capital is a US$135 million technology-focused venture capital firm whose founders and partners have created or incubated companies with more than US$10 billion in assets. It was established to seek growth opportunities in the rapidly growing areas of the tech sector, with specific focus on cloud computing and other hosted services, virtualization and mobile applications. Runa Capital's investments announced to date include: Thinkgrid (sold to Colt), Nginx, Talkbits, Jelastic, Metabar, Travelmenu, BigTime® Software,  Ecwid, StopTheHacker, Capptain, B2B-Center, Infratel, LinguaLeo and Dnevnik.ru. For more information, please visit www.runacap.com.

CONTACT: Richard Goold
         media@stationxinc.com