NuGEN launches the Ovation WGA System for genome amplification

Sep 30 2009

NuGEN Technologies Inc, a pace-setter in nucleic acid sample preparation, announces its entrance into the DNA market today with the Ovation WGA System, a linear, remarkably reliable, and more robust solution to whole genome amplification.

The Ovation WGA System uses NuGEN’s patented SPIA® (Single Primer Isothermal Amplification) technology, and provides all the reagents needed to generate micrograms of DNA in less than four hours from samples as small as 10 nanograms. With linear amplification, every new strand grows from the original DNA template, leading to increased consistency and uniform representation of the whole genome — critical parameters when every sample counts.

“This is a fresh solution to DNA amplification for genomic researchers,” said Dr. Douglas A. Amorese, Ph.D., NuGEN Vice President for Research and Development. “It’s an exciting step for us, applying the strengths we’re known for in transcriptome amplification — providing reproducible results with simple, flexible, and sensitive tools — and moving into this new arena of genomic DNA amplification.”

The Ovation WGA System is a straightforward, out-of-the-box solution. In addition to its broad general downstream applications, the Ovation WGA System is particularly ideal for the extremely sensitive copy-number analysis required in cancer and stem-cell research, where genome instability plays an important role and sample size is limited. “For several years, our customers have benefited from our extensive portfolio of products that enable expression analysis of very small samples, the addition of the Ovation WGA System enables yet another dimension in their disease and therapeutic research from the systems biology perspective,” added Dr. Amorese.

“In our studies, only the Ovation WGA System can be used for important quantitative measurements from amplified gDNA,” said Dr. Andrew Brooks, Director of the Bionomics Research and Technology Center at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Dr. Brooks, an early access customer, used q-PCR to faithfully distinguish the subtle 3:2 ratio signaling trisomy 21 in samples amplified with NuGEN’s Ovation WGA System.

“We often receive very little starting material,” he said. “Right out of the box, the Ovation WGA System provided amplified material from our limited gDNA and performed as well as unamplified gDNA in several quantitative PCR assays,” he said. “In the past we have tried other commercial WGA systems and have never been able to make accurate quantification measurement following amplification. We are switching to the Ovation WGA System for all our clinical gDNA applications.”