Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) today announced Ion AmpliSeq™ Community Panels, a community-driven solution to gene panel sequencing that leverages the expertise of scientific thought leaders and the Ion Community to create gene panels for conditions ranging from cancer to inherited diseases. Life Technologies also announced an upgrade to its Ion Reporter™ Software, which further simplifies sequencing data analysis and interpretation with an automated point-and-click workflow that makes informatics accessible to everyone.
Ion AmpliSeq™ Community Panels are built on the same breakthrough technology that powers the Ion AmpliSeq™ Ready-to-Use Panels and the Ion AmpliSeq™ Custom Panels. Since introduction just a year ago, Ion AmpliSeq™ Ready-to-Use Panels for over 40,000 reactions have been sold for cancer and inherited disease research. Additionally, in just seven months more than 900 scientists have designed their own Ion AmpliSeq™ Custom Panels online with Ion AmpliSeq™ Designer on ampliseq.com, a simple web-based assay design tool.
Ion AmpliSeq™ Community Panels are developed in collaboration with leading scientists who draw on their expertise in a specific disease area to select gene content for panels. These panels are then verified and made available to the entire Ion Community. Users have the option of adding or removing gene content to precisely fit their research needs, providing the ultimate flexibility.
One of the first panels was developed by eight leading European researchers who worked together with Life Technologies scientists to develop a 22-gene Ion AmpliSeq™ Community Panel for lung and colon cancer. Click here to see a video interview with the OncoNetwork members. The panel analyzes more than 500 mutations in a single-tube assay that requires just 10 ng of DNA input per primer pool, about 25-fold less than alternative gene panel approaches. The Ion AmpliSeq™ workflow is a simple PCR reaction that takes just 3.5 hours turn-around time.
"Using classical methods to screen for mutations one at a time requires so much DNA sample, you often can't look at all the mutations you want," said Dr. Pierre Laurent-Puig, M.D., Ph.D., Professor at the Paris - Descartes University Medical School and a member of the OncoNetwork Consortium. "We have developed a tool that allows us to characterize tumors very easily, using only 10 ng of sample to screen more than 500 COSMIC mutations. Having these kits in our hands will accelerate throughput of the characterization of tumors and make personalized medicine a reality."
The research institutions that developed the panel – dubbed the OncoNetwork – include Centro Ricerche Oncologiche Mercogliano, Italy; Leiter Genetik / Molekularbiologie Viollier AG, Switzerland; University of Warwick, UK; Institut Gustave Roussy France; Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, The Netherlands; Universite Paris Descartes Centre, Universitaire des Saints-Peres, France; St James' Hospital, Dublin EIRE.
In addition to the OncoNetwork panel, Life Technologies is working with other leading researchers to develop new Ion AmpliSeq Community Panels: Ion AmpliSeq™ AML Panel, for acute myeloid Leukemia research; Ion AmpliSeq™ BRCA1/2 Panel, for breast and ovarian cancer research; Ion AmpliSeq™ Cardio Panel, for heart disease research; Ion AmpliSeq™ CFTR Panel, for cystic fibrosis research and the Ion AmpliSeq™ TP53 Panel, for cancer research. Ion AmpliSeq™ Community Panels are verified by the same researchers who designed the gene content. All of these designs are available today for review at ampliseq.com. Join the 13,500-member Ion Community today to find out more about the program or to contribute to creating Ion AmpliSeq Community Panels.
Sequencing for All: Point and click bioinformatics solution drives to the biology
For many labs, the biggest hesitation in moving to Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) is analyzing and interpreting the flood of data that NGS can produce. Ion Torrent's new v1.2 of Ion Reporter Software radically simplifies NGS data analysis and interpretation with an automated point-and-click model that takes you from Ion semiconductor sequencing reads to an easy-to-understand annotated report, helping scientists understand the impact of genomic variants.
Ion Reporter™ v1.2 enables users to rapidly process genomic data using predefined workflows optimized for each specific sequencing panel and for the most popular experimental designs, such as an oncology tumor-normal workflow and an inherited disease workflow for finding genetic abnormalities and novel variants in trios. Additionally, Ion Reporter™ Software v1.2 includes a new collaborations feature that allows users to share samples, analyses, and results with trusted community members, as well as the latest in security protocols, e-signatures, and audit logs ensuring data security standards are met.
Ion Reporter™ v1.2 is also now integrated with the Ingenuity® Variant Analysis™ workflow to allow users to leverage the vast Ingenuity Knowledge Base® to identify biologically relevant variants. Both Ion Reporter™ Software 1.2 and the Ingenuity Variant Analysis workflow are available free of charge until the end of 2012. To learn more about how Ion Reporter™ Software and Ingenuity are simplifying bioinformatics, come the Ion Torrent User Group Meeting at ASHG in San Francisco on Thursday, Nov. 8.
Sequencing for All: An unprecedented pace of innovation
Life Technologies has made tremendous progress on the products that it announced just eight weeks ago at the Ion World conference. The current and future products include the Ion Proton™ System and Avalanche™, a revolutionary 30-minute emulsion-free template preparation chemistry that will work on all Ion platforms and enable sample-to-answer workflow in under eight hours. To learn more about this unprecedented pace of innovation, come to the Ion Torrent Workshop at ASHG on Nov. 7 and hear from Ion Torrent Founder and CEO Dr. Jonathan Rothberg, as well as other leaders in sequencing.
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