Aug. 12--Is Silicon Valley gradually getting its mojo back? The evidence may be anecdotal, but this week brought news that Facebook acquired FriendFeed, VMware purchased SpringSource, and security firm Fortinet registered for an initial public offering on Wall Street.

And today , Pacific Biosciences, based in Menlo Park, added to the upbeat news, announcing $68 million in new financing for the company that boasts a "pioneering" role in developing a transformative DNA sequencing technology. The new financing included strategic investments from the Wellcome Trust and Monsanto.

Pacific Biosciences' technology "has the power to unlock how inheritance and environmental factors affect human health," Wellcome Trust chairman Bill Castell said in press release.

Pacific Biosciences CEO Hugh Martin said the strategic investments from Wellcome, "the premier trust for healthcare," and Monsanto, "a global leader in agricultural," represent further validation of the company's potential and "the promise of our disruptive technology platform."

He added: "We have been able to raise a total of $188 million since last summer, during a very difficult economic market."

At a time when clean-tech has become the hottest trend in venture investing, the life science sector has quietly sustained a strong presence and may prove the safer bet, say observers such as Tracy Lefteroff, the lead venture industry manager for PricewaterhouseCooper. While the

maturity of the valley's hardware and software businesses makes new breakthroughs difficult, fields like genomics and proteomics (the analysis of proteins) are in the early stages -- and aging baby boomers are a growing market for therapies and medical devices.

Pacific Biosciences was founded in 2004 and has received an Advanced Sequencing Technology Award grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute. The company said it expects to launch the commercial version of its SMRTâ??¢ (single molecule real time) Sequencing System in the second half of 2010.

The new funding also added Sutter Hill Ventures to Pacific Biosciences' long list of investors, which also includes Deerfield Management, Intel Capital, Morgan Stanley, Redmile Group, T. Rowe Price, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Alloy Ventures, Maverick Capital, AllianceBernstein, DAG Ventures, Teachers' Private Capital and Blackstone Cleantech Venture Partners

Dyyno-mite debut?

Dyyno, creator of a new high-definition online video platform that CEO Raj Jaswa says will enable "ubiquitous use of video for business and entertainment," this week launched the first commercial version of its technology.

Based on technology licensed from Stanford University and financed by Artiman Ventures and Startup Capital, Dyyno claims to have reduced the cost of video over the Internet from $50 per terrabyte to less than $2 per terrabyte.

Dyyno's system, available on a subscription basis, has been embraced by Cisco System's popular WebEx business collaboration and is creating an emerging "spectator mode" for Xfire and other companies in the online gaming industry. Jaswa said the company also anticipates the Dyyno platform being used for education, civic affairs and "citizen journalism."

Openings at Simply Hired

Unemployment remains high, but the Silicon Valley startup that bills itself as "the largest job search engine" this week announced it has secured $4.6 million in new venture capital funding as it crosses a milestone toward profitability.

Simply Hired expects to do some hiring itself, announcing plans to increase its staff from 50 to 80 by the end of the year.

The Mountain View-based company has raised $22.3 million in financing to date, and says it will use the new financing from IDG Ventures and Foundation Capital to expand domestically and internationally. Simply Hired said it now operates in 13 countries and seven languages across five continents.

Contact Scott Duke Harris can be reached at sdharris@mercurynews.com or 408-920-2704.

-----

To see more of the San Jose Mercury News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.mercurynews.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:VMW, NYSE:MON, Singapore:S53, NYSE:MS, NASDAQ-NMS:TROW, NYSE:AB,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.