Life Technologies Presents Revolutionary DNA Sequencing Technology
Life technologies brings about a revolution in the global research community with the launch of its new product, ION Torrent Genome Machine. The product has drastically reduced the time taken for DNA sequencing and thus helped the researchers across the globe.
- (1888PressRelease) October 20, 2011 - Life Technologies, a global biotechnology company operating in India as Invitrogen BioServices India Pvt. Ltd., presented its unprecedented next-generation sequencing product - Ion Torrent Personal Genome MachineTM (PGM) to its customers in India at the Innovation Update Forum, a regular platform the company setup to exchange insights and opinions on innovation with its key constituents.
To date, most sequencing technologies have primarily addressed the needs of researchers in the highest throughput laboratories, which limit widespread accessibility of sequencing technologies. Ion PGM improves the existing decoding equipment by replacing the complex optical modules with a simple semiconductor chip. The result is a sequencing system that is simpler, faster, less expensive and more scalable than other sequencing technologies in current market.
The semiconductor based PGM enabled scientists to discover within days a hybrid E. coli bacterium that caused the outbreak in Germany and other European countries in June 2011, which would take weeks for the older generation sequencers to produce the same information. It was also used to sequence the recent Klebsiella bug in the Netherlands that caused 20 deaths.
"Given the low cost and speed of analysis of the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine, Life Technologies is hoping to 'democratize' DNA sequencing, which has been so far a fairly expensive, time-consuming technique and restricted mainly to basic research labs." said Devashish Ohri, Managing Director, Life Technologies, South Asia. "Now with the PGM being well within reach and given its ability to produce large amounts of DNA sequence data in a short period of time, we are hoping that it leads to mass adoption of this technology by scientists of every stripe and persuasion."
PGM is featured with value, speed and accuracy. The single-day workflow -- from library preparation to data analysis -- is now the fastest in the next-generation sequencing industry, at eight to nine hours depending on the read length required. The PGM™ system's accuracy has improved by an order of magnitude since it was launched six months ago.
"Life Technologies' PGM to me looks like a very exciting and viable technology, where you can generate gigabytes of sequencing in one go", said Prof. N.K. Mehra, Head of the Department of Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics, AIIMS, New Delhi. "I believe that it would really be a wonderful tool to understand genomic diversity of the pathogen. So from that point of view, I am sure it will be of great interest to researchers who are very keen to understand the immunogenic components of an organism."
"What impresses me more about this semiconductor sequencing technology is the scalability and speed. For those working with the patients samples, speed and accuracy are very important factors. The PGM is projected to have such great abilities." said Dr. Vijayalaxmi Ramshankar, Asst. Professor, Cancer Institute, Chennai. "In addition, PGM projects results much better than microarray platforms, and hence can be used in hospitals to sequence smaller amplicons to generate fast results. It has tremendous use in cancer research."
Scientists have responded to these advances in sequencing speed, scalability and simplicity by making the Ion PGM system the fastest selling next-generation sequencer with placements in more than 40 countries.
About Life Technologies (www.lifetechnologies.com)
Life Technologies Corporation is a global biotechnology company dedicated to improving the human condition. Our systems, consumables and services enable researchers to accelerate scientific and medical advancements that make life even better. Life Technologies customers do their work across the biological spectrum, working to advance the fields of discovery and translational research, molecular medicine, stem cell-based therapies, food safety and animal health, and 21st century forensics. The company manufactures both molecular diagnostic and research use only products. Life Technologies' industry-leading brands are found in nearly every life sciences lab in the world and include innovative instrument systems under the Applied Biosystems and Ion Torrent names, as well as, the broadest range of reagents with its Invitrogen, GIBCO, Ambion, Molecular Probes and TaqMan products. Life Technologies had sales of $3.6 billion in 2010, has a workforce of approximately 11,000 people, has a presence in approximately 160 countries, and possesses one of the largest intellectual property estates in the life sciences industry, with approximately 3,900 patents and exclusive licenses. For more information on how we are making a difference, please visit our website: http://www.lifetechnologies.com.
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