Applied Biosystems announces the commercial availability of SOLiD 3 Plus System

Applied Biosystems, part of Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ:LIFE) today announced the commercial availability of the SOLiD™ 3 Plus System, an enhanced next-generation genomic analysis platform designed to allow researchers to move one step closer to performing mainstream sequencing of personal genomes for clinical research and personalized medicine. The technical enhancements to SOLiD 3 Plus include higher throughput, decreased run costs, and faster data analysis which deliver on a roadmap that enables scientists to sequence entire genomes in a more cost-effective and easy manner.

The SOLiD 3 Plus System, distinguished by its unmatched accuracy, is capable of generating more than 60 gigabases of mappable sequence data per run, at a 20% lower cost per sequencing run than previously possible. The combination of increased throughput, which equates to an approximate 50% decrease in cost per gigabase, shorter run times, and improved data analysis makes the SOLiD technology the ideal choice for large-scale resequencing genomic projects.

An advanced software solution, BioScope™, has been introduced and provides an integrated framework for data analysis, which allows researchers to benefit from smaller data file sizes while delivering faster mapping times. The addition of BioScope enables researchers to export data into a standard base sequence format, enabling the combination of data from multiple sequencing platforms into a single project-based analysis, and allows direct comparison of data from multiple next-generation sequencing platforms. This has proven to be beneficial in large-scale genomic studies, such as the 1000 Genomes Project.

Dr. Hans Lehrach, head of the Vertebrate Genomics Department at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, is currently utilizing four SOLiD Systems for the 1000 Genomes Project and various other projects. Dr. Lehrach’s work is focused on the fields of cancer genomics, genome analysis and systems biology with particular interest in cellular and molecular mechanisms of cancer and other diseases. His research team currently uses the SOLiD System for a range of genomic studies, including whole genome resequencing, methylation analysis, miRNA and targeted resequencing.

Dr. Hans Lehrach, head of the Vertebrate Genomics Department at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics

“In our view, next-generation sequencing is a key step to the future of personalized medicine. Due to its high accuracy, and its relatively low sequencing costs, the SOLiD platform is clearly a major contributor in this development. The SOLiD 3 Plus technology in particular will enable the targeted resequencing of larger sized panels of individuals, especially in the field of cancer.”

Kip Miller, President, Genetic Systems Division at Life Technologies

“The delivery of these new performance attributes demonstrates Life Technologies’ commitment to furthering innovation in advanced genomic analysis technologies, and cements the SOLiD System as the most scalable platform on the market. We believe the SOLiD System is the next-generation sequencing technology platform of choice for a broad range of advanced genomics research, including system biology and disease studies.”

Supporting Resources

• SOLiD System
• Agilent Technologies, Life Technologies Co-market Target-Enrichment System for Next-Generation Sequencing
• Life Technologies and febit Team to Offer New Solution for Targeted Re-sequencing in Large-scale Genomic Studies