Rubicon Genomics reaches agreement with ZyGEM to market its PicoPlex single-cell amplification kits

Rubicon Genomics, Inc., a developer of pre-analytical amplification products that enable more comprehensive genetic analysis of clinical and research samples, announced today that it has reached agreement with ZyGEM to non-exclusively market Rubicon's PicoPlex™ single-cell amplification kits in Australia and New Zealand.

"This agreement with ZyGEM represents another major step in the adoption of Rubicon's pre-analytical amplification kits in the global marketplace. Rubicon's technology is capable of performing rapid amplification of nucleic acids from a wide variety of sample types easily and with excellent fidelity," said James Koziarz, President and CEO of Rubicon Genomics.

"Since its introduction in July of 2009, interest in PicoPlex kits in the research and commercial markets has been strong.  The PicoPlex technology nicely complements ZyGEM's advanced DNA extraction products and we are looking forward to bringing this cutting-edge technology to the markets we serve in Australia and New Zealand," said Paul Kinnon, CEO of ZyGEM.

With PicoPlex technology, the same amount of genomic data for analysis can be obtained from a single human cell or from 10,000 cells, with minimal background.  In a simple three-step, three-hour process, single cells can be lysed and the DNA amplified one million-fold.  The amplified DNA can be analyzed using qPCR, microarrays and next-generation sequencing instruments for either research or diagnostic applications.  Other whole genome amplification kits based on PCR or multiple displacement amplification inconsistently amplify single cells, with unpredictable locus and allele dropouts.  In contrast, PicoPlex delivers amplified total DNA from single cells that reproducibly represents genomic sequences without allele dropouts.

PicoPlex has become the leading method for amplifying single cells for pre-implantation genetic diagnostics and screening (PGD/PGS) of human embryos, and it is expected to displace current technologies for amplifying genomic DNA from circulating tumor cells, tumor tissue, stem cells and forensic samples.  The PicoPlex technology is one of a series of new amplification technologies being introduced into the nucleic acid testing market by Rubicon Genomics.

This new agreement follows a 2009 agreement to incorporate ZyGEM's advanced enzymatic nucleic acid extraction technology into Rubicon's pre-analytical platform products designed to significantly improve the performance of DNA and RNA analytical instruments.