Correlagen Diagnostics to develop diagnostic tests on the Helicos Genetic Analysis Platform

Helicos BioSciences Corporation (NASDAQ: HLCS) today announced the sale of a system and a scientific collaboration with Correlagen Diagnostics Inc., a leading provider of genetic tests for disease diagnosis.

“We are very excited to have Correlagen as both a customer and collaborator, and look forward to working with them as they develop diagnostic tests on the Helicos® Genetic Analysis Platform” stated Ron Lowy, CEO of Helicos. “This relationship demonstrates our commercial progress in both the research market and in diagnostics.”

Correlagen, a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certified laboratory, plans to use the Helicos® Genetic Analysis System for novel, high-content, genetic tests based on resequencing broad panels of genes involved in disease areas such as cardiology, endocrinology, neuropsychiatry, and immunology. Helicos and Correlagen will collaborate on the optimization of sample preparation methodologies that benefit from single-molecule sequencing in the context of targeted resequencing, as well as on data analysis and visualization technologies for sequence variant detection, annotation, and clinical reporting.

“We believe that the Helicos System will allow us to provide DNA-based clinical assays of unprecedented value for the diagnosis of genetic disorders” stated David Margulies, President and CEO of Correlagen. “Helicos was the obvious choice for the CLIA-certified genetic diagnostics arena given the unique characteristics of this single-molecule sequencing platform. Our assays will have unmatched breadth, precision, and clinical utility.”