Two lists worth a look: Promising life sciences start-ups and powerful VC firms

Back in the springtime, I was involved with assembling the second edition of "The Convergence Guide," a book that looks at life sciences activity in New England. We put together two lists that have just shown up online...one profiles the top ten venture firms doing life sciences deals in New England (compiled by Dan Primack, who writes for PE Week and Venture Capital Journal)... and one examines the ten most promising life sciences startups (put together by Steven Dickman, a biotech consultant who used to write for Nature, Science, and The Economist.) It was distributed at the BIO International Convention in May, and Gov. Deval Patrick wrote the foreword.

The VC list is here, in PDF form. The run-down:

1 Polaris Venture Partners
2 Atlas Venture
3 MPM Capital
4 Novartis Corp.
5 SV Life Sciences Advisers
6 Flagship Ventures
7 TVM Capital
8 Boston University Community Technology Fund
9 Oxford Bioscience Partners
10 HealthCare Ventures

And the list of companies is here, in PDF form. The first company on the list, Adnexus Therapeutics, just filed for an IPO today. That list, in alphabetical order:

Adnexus Therapeutics (MA, just filed to go public)
Aveo Pharmaceuticals (MA)
Codon Devices (MA)
Helicos BioSciences (MA, now public)
Microbia (MA)
Neurotech (RI)
Radius Health (MA)
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (MA, now public)
Targanta Therapeutics (MA)
Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals (MA)

Plus three companies Dickman dubbed worthy of being "on the radar": Acceleron Pharma, GI Dynamics, and Tempo Pharmaceuticals.