NorGenoTech

What NorGenoTech does

NorGenoTech AS is a Norwegian biotechnology company founded in 2013 by Professor Andrew Collins, Dr Gunnar Brunborg, and Dr Amaya Azqueta to commercialize the high-throughput comet assay methods developed under the EC COMICS project. The firm operates a DNA damage and repair analysis platform built around the single-cell gel electrophoresis (comet) assay, comprising proprietary high-throughput (96-gel, up to 384 gels per experiment) and medium-throughput (12-gel, up to 240 gels) formats, a stainless steel tissue mincing device, frozen reference cell standards carrying defined DNA lesions, and lesion-specific repair enzymes (Formamidopyrimidine DNA glycosylase, Endonuclease III, and hOGG1). It also offers specialized assays including Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization on Comets (FISH comet) and high-throughput DNA repair assays for base excision and nucleotide excision repair.

The company is headquartered at the Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park in Oslo and serves chemical and pharmaceutical industries, hospitals, healthcare providers, research laboratories and universities, regulators, and environmental monitoring clients. Revenue is generated across four streams: laboratory genotoxicity testing services under OECD guideline-compliant, GLP-capable methodologies (Ames test, chromosome aberration, micronucleus, gene mutation, and comet assay); sale of equipment, consumables, and reagents; practical and theoretical training courses delivered at customer sites and through international workshops; and consultancy on experiment design, regulatory compliance, nanosafety, and Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD). Strategic customers span F&B (Tchibo, Kraft Foods Europe/Mondelez), healthcare (Norwegian Radium Hospital), and government research (Norwegian Institute of Public Health, NIVA). Wholly-owned subsidiary Comet BioTech AS handles regulatory testing of manufactured nanomaterials.

NorGenoTech monetizes its scientific leadership through repeated participation in EU-funded research consortia, acting as Work Package leader or coordinator across COST Action hCOMET, aDDRess, NANAQUA, CompSafeNano, NANO2FILM, ComPack, CONVERT-Si, 3Biotic, DIH-HERO, and PERMIDES, and as a member of the Oslo Cancer Cluster. Pricing for laboratory services, equipment, and training is quote-based and not publicly disclosed, and the firm maintains a lean cost structure with 1-10 employees and founder-led operations.

Name

NorGenoTech

Legal name

NorGenoTech AS

Website

https://norgenotech.no

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

NorGenoTech AS is a Norwegian biotech firm commercializing proprietary comet assay-based DNA damage analysis, providing high-throughput equipment, OECD-compliant genotoxicity testing, training courses, and consultancy to chemical, pharmaceutical, hospital, research, and regulatory clients.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Genotoxicity Testing and DNA Damage Analysis Services

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516), Medical Laboratories (621511), Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories (6215), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826), Services-Testing Laboratories (8734), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Medical Laboratories (8071), In Vitro & In Vivo Diagnostic Substances (2835)

akta.pro primary industry

Genetic Toxicology (Ames/Micronucleus/Comet) (HLAGAFAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Genomics & Molecular Diagnostics (Trial Support) (HLAGAEAD), Molecular Diagnostics & Genomics Laboratories (HLAFAMAE)

Keywords

• DNA damage analysis
• Genotoxicity testing
• Comet assay equipment
• Biomedical laboratory services
• Nanomaterial safety assessment

Headquarters

HQ city

Oslo

HQ country

Norway

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Laboratory Testing Services: Genotoxicity testing services including comet assay, Ames test, chromosome aberration tests, micronucleus tests, and gene mutation assays. Performed in accordance with OECD guidelines and GLP standards.
2. Equipment and Product Sales: Sale of comet assay equipment including high/medium throughput formats, tissue mincing devices, reference standards, and DNA repair enzymes.
3. Training Courses and Workshops: Practical and theoretical training courses in comet assay and genotoxicity methods. Basic courses (2-3 days) and advanced courses. Individual training and research stays also offered.
4. Consultancy Services: Expertise and consultancy in genotoxicity assessment, laboratory setup, experiment design, data analysis, safety evaluation, and regulatory compliance.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

NorGenoTech develops and manufactures proprietary comet assay equipment (high-throughput 96-gel and medium-throughput 12-gel formats, tissue mincing devices, reference standards, and DNA repair enzymes such as Fpg, EndoIII, and hOGG1) for DNA damage and repair analysis. The company also delivers GLP- and OECD-compliant laboratory genotoxicity testing services, training courses, and regulatory consultancy to pharmaceutical, chemical, cosmetic, nanomaterial, hospital, and research clients.

Product overview

NorGenoTech offers a portfolio of comet assay-based products and services for DNA damage analysis. The core products include high-throughput (48- or 96-gels format) and medium-throughput (12-gels format) comet assay equipment, tissue mincing devices, and reference standards with repair enzymes (Fpg, EndoIII, hOGG1). These are complemented by service offerings including genotoxicity testing, consultancy, training courses, and R&D partnerships. The company serves pharmaceutical, chemical, and cosmetics industries, hospitals, research labs, and regulators.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• High-Throughput Comet Assay Format (48- or 96-Gels)

Quantifiable outcome

• High throughput enabling up to 384 gels per experiment vs traditional 40 gels
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core, strategic and minor.

• Oslo Cancer ClustercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2016NorGenoTech became a member of Oslo Cancer Cluster in November 2016. The cluster is an oncology research and industry dedicated to improving lives of cancer patients by accelerating development of new cancer diagnostics and treatment. Members represent the entire oncology value chain from exploratory research to selling therapeutics and diagnostics.
• Comet BioTech AScoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDaughter company of NorGenoTech that participates in regulatory testing projects for manufactured nanomaterials. Involved in EU project NANoREG and NorNANoREG for national and European approaches to regulatory testing of nanomaterials.
• Norwegian Institute of Water Research (NIVA)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with NIVA on environmental monitoring. Together they monitor the aquatic environment near oil platforms using comet assay on fish cells. Also established environmental monitoring station at lake of Mjøsa (Skreia area, Oppland).
• University of OslostrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerNorGenoTech benefits from closeness to University of Oslo allowing team expansion for large-scale projects. Collaboration on ComPack project (Norwegian arm) and human nutritional intervention studies. Partner in Industrial PhD project on colorectal cancer.
• hCOMET - COST Action CA15132strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerNorGenoTech joined hCOMET in January 2016. The Action aims to create unified database of comet assay data for pooled analysis on DNA damage and repair in humans. Action is coordinated by NorGenoTech founder Professor Andrew Collins. Researchers participate in multiple working groups.
• ERA-Net Consortium (Convert-Si, DEBUT)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNorGenoTech is Norwegian arm coordinator of ERA-Net project 'Convert Si' on safety assessment of plant-based nanomaterials. Subcontract coordinator for ERA-Net project 'DEBUT' on safety assessment of novel soil biostimulants.
• Eureka Consortium (3Biotic)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNorwegian arm coordinator of Eureka Traditional project '3Biotic' on safety evaluation of bioactive peptides obtained from colostrum. Project funded by SkatteFunn and private funding.
• National Research and Development Institute for Chemistry and Petrochemistry (Romania)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in Convert-Si project alongside University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicines (Romania), Laboratoarele Medica (Romania), Wroclaw University of Technology (Poland), and MKF-Ergis Sp. z.o.o.z (Poland).
• VITO (Belgium)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on hands-on comet assay training course in August 2015. NorGenoTech researchers were among organizers and instructors of training session at VITO, Belgium covering standard and tissue comet assay and comet-based in vitro DNA repair assay.
• Biopredic International (France)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in ComPack project 'A compact comet assay for versatile genotoxicity testing and environmental monitoring'. ComPack was a French-Norwegian collaborative research and innovation project.
• Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation ParkstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerNorGenoTech opened laboratory facilities at Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park on August 1, 2017. The vision is to create Europe's leading environment for education, research and industry within oncology, bringing together the entire oncology value chain.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Charles River Laboratories: Global CRO with a large genetic toxicology offering covering OECD 471/473/476/487/489 plus broader safety assessment. Competes on scale, global logistics, and bundled pricing in the same genotoxicity testing market.
• Inotiv: US CRO formed from Envigo/Harlan and CBRE Bioanalytical, with genetic toxicology and safety assessment services. Competes in OECD-aligned genotoxicity testing for chemical and pharma clients.
• BioReliance (Merck KGaA / MilliporeSigma): Merck's biologics testing and genetic toxicology brand offering GLP OECD assay packages and biosafety testing. Overlaps on regulatory genetic toxicology testing and reference materials for pharma/chemical clients.
• Eurofins Scientific: Global testing services group with dedicated genotoxicity and REACH-aligned assay capacity across Europe. Overlaps directly on comet, Ames, micronucleus, and chromosome aberration services at scale.
• Labcorp (Genetic Toxicology / Covance): Large CRO with established genetic toxicology services (formerly Covance) covering the same OECD suite plus regulatory support. Represents the scaled alternative procurement route for NorGenoTech's enterprise customers.

Direct peers

• Toxys: Dutch genetic toxicology specialist offering in vitro toxicology services (including ToxTracker and comet-based DNA damage assays) for chemical and pharma safety assessment. Closely comparable niche genotoxicity CRO with academic spin-out DNA.
• Gentronix: UK-based specialist CRO focused on genetic toxicology and genotoxicity assays (e.g., GreenScreen, MicroFlow). Directly comparable as a niche genetic-toxicology services and reagent provider serving chemical/pharma customers with OECD-aligned assays.
• MB Research Laboratories: Independent US genetic toxicology and safety assessment CRO offering OECD 471/473/487/489 testing. Comparable niche genotoxicity services provider serving pharma, chemical, and medical device customers.
• Litron Laboratories: US-based genetic toxicology specialist known for in vitro micronucleus flow cytometry kits and OECD-aligned genotoxicity services. Comparable as a niche genetic-toxicology tools + services provider with proprietary assay platforms.

Regional players

• Helix3 (formerly RTI International / chemistry/genetic toxicology labs): Mentioned as illustrative regional genetic toxicology service providers in the US. Closest US-focused peer category to a Norwegian specialist CRO pursuing OECD-compliant genetic toxicology contracts; serves as a regional competitor for cross-border service work.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about NorGenoTech