Cepheid, Maker of Test to Spot MRSA Staph Infections, Builds Growing Presence in Washington

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So I jumped at an opportunity to interview CEO John Bishop a couple weeks ago to learn more about why a fast-growing company like Cepheid (NASDAQ: CPHD) made a strategic decision to build a 30-person chemistry team in Bothell, and why the venture is expected to grow.The Cepheid test tackles this problem by putting complex DNA amplification processes into a box that someone without expert lab training can operate.This is why companies like Roche, Abbott Laboratories, Celera, and Becton Dickinson are all pushing to grab bigger stakes in the more precise world of molecular diagnostics.Gall, and the people he oversees at the Bothell group, brought an important skill in their ability to modify the individual nucleic acid base chemicals—the building blocks of DNA—that make the Cepheid machines proprietary, Bishop says.This work is so integral to the company and its ability to make specialized probes and primers that Cepheid is planning to build up manufacturing capability near the chemistry group in Bothell.

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