History
Nuvelo originally was formed as Hyseq in 1992 by two Yugoslavian scientists, Radoje Drmanac and Radomir Crkvenjakov, who had discovered a new and more sensitive way to detect rare genes while working at Belgrade's Institute of Molecular Genetics. Intrigued by the Human Genome Project and the synergies with the work he was doing in Belgrade, Drmanac came to the United States where he partnered with patent attorney, Lewis Gruber, who had made his reputation by writing the first successful biotech patent.
Shortly thereafter, Gruber raised venture capital to fund Hyseq, completed its initial public offering in August 1997, and began building a proprietary collection of novel and rarely expressed genes using the company's high-throughput signature-by-hybridization (SBH) technology platform.
In the spring of 2000, George Rathmann joined the company as chairman of the board of directors, soon recruiting Ted W. Love as president and chief executive officer. Under new leadership, the company began to focus on building a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical business based on the more than 10,000 genes that were identified through Hyseq's SBH technology. We formed Callida Genomics, Inc. as a majority owned subsidiary to focus on the development and commercialization of advanced DNA sequencing and analysis tools based upon multiple proprietary oligonucleotide-based technologies. Nuvelo subsequently divested its interest in Callida Genomics in 2004.
In November 2002, Hyseq took another important step in announcing its merger with Cambridge, Massachusetts based VARIAGENICS. The merger closed on January 31, 2003, and the combined company began trading on the Nasdaq under its new name, Nuvelo, and symbol, NUVO, on February 3, 2003. Today, Nuvelo is dedicated to improving the lives of patients through the discovery, development and commercialization of novel drugs for acute cardiovascular disease, cancer and other debilitating medical conditions.