CollabRx, Inc. is a company that offers cloud-based expert systems for selecting clinical treatments for molecular diseases such as cancer. Its technology revolves around dynamically updated molecular disease models that form the basis of the expert systems. One of the challenges evolving from the recent explosion in biological information is to distill actionable clinically relevant therapy approaches from the vast amount of data available. The knowledgebases that inform the models are updated by a large network of advisors from academic and medical institutions. CollabRx is a Delaware corporation, formed with the formerly named Tegal Corporation, which acquired the privately held company, also known as CollabRx, on July 12, 2012. On September 25, 2012, the stockholders amended the charter and assumed the “CollabRx, Inc.,” name. The former Tegal Corporation was formed in December 1989 to acquire the operations of a division of Motorola, Inc., that previously operated under the Tegal name. That company was founded in 1972, and acquired by Motorola, Inc., in 1978. The independent Tegal Corporation completed their initial public offering in October 1995. Access to the expert systems is offered under software-as-a-service contracts. A major user of the technology is expected to be DNA testing laboratories, which hope to translate patient-specific genetic characterization to patient-specific clinical treatment advice for molecular diseases. Current customers include Life Technologies, OncoDNA and Sengenics. Other users might include doctors and clinics which deal complex and difficult-to-treat diseases such as refractory cancers. CollabRx sponsors the Lung Cancer Therapy Finder on Medpagetoday.com to demonstrate its technology.
History
The current corporate entity resulted from the purchase of privately held CollabRX Inc. by the publicly traded Tegal Corporation, followed by a corporate reorganization and trading symbol change. Tegal Corporation was a manufacturer of plasma etch and deposition systems until February, 2011, after which it sold off much of its patent portfolio and invested in a variety of ventures, including , , and finally CollabRx. Tegal was founded in 1972 by Ted Gallagher, hence its name. The company was acquired by Motorola in 1978 and sold some years later. Tegal became publicly traded on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol TGAL before changing its symbol to CLRX after the merger with CollabRx. CollabRx was founded in 2008 by computer scientist Jeff Shrager, Silicon Valleyinternet pioneerJay Martin Tenenbaum, and mathematician Raphael Lehrer.
