Agilent Technologies, Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Seahorse Bioscience, a provider of instruments and assay kits for measuring cell metabolism and bioenergetics, for $235 million in cash.
 
Seahorse’s technology enables researchers to better understand cell health, function and signaling, and how the cell may be impacted by the introduction of a specific drug, by providing real-time kinetics to unlock essential cellular bioenergetics data.
 
Scientists use Seahorse’s XF Technology to research the role of cell metabolism in neurodegeneration, aging, cancer, cardiovascular disease, cell physiology, toxicology and hepatobiology, immunology, infectious diseases, mitochondrial diseases, model organisms, obesity, diabetes, metabolic disorders, screening and translational medicine.
 
“Seahorse Bioscience’s unique technology is the perfect complement to Agilent’s market-leading separations and mass spectrometry solutions, in particular for metabolomics research and disease research in pharma,” said Patrick Kaltenbach, president of Agilent’s Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group. “The combination of these two platforms gives scientists a more comprehensive and faster path to researching the most challenging diseases affecting mankind. Seahorse’s team and technology are an ideal fit for Agilent and for our customers, and we look forward to bringing them on board.”
 
“We are proud to have enabled the exploration of bioenergetics in living cells by nearly 10,000 scientists worldwide, and to have created a new category of cell-based assay tools,” said Jay Teich, chief executive officer, Seahorse Bioscience. “Joining Agilent, a premier, customer-focused supplier of technology to a much broader market, will give many more researchers access to Seahorse tools. And when these two technology-rich companies combine, we expect to offer a series of new products and applications that will benefit our customers.”
  
The acquisition is expected to be completed by November 1, subject to customary closing conditions.