Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ:LIFE) today announced the expansion of its industry-leading family of real-time PCR systems with the introduction of a new high-productivity instrument. The Applied Biosystems ViiA™ 7 Real-Time PCR System seamlessly integrates a variety of quantitative PCR (qPCR) and genotyping applications, enabling researchers to enter a new era of lab productivity. The system offers a number of performance and usability enhancements that are expected to advance the understanding of molecular biology in the pharmaceutical discovery and clinical research markets.
“By integrating a broad portfolio of real-time PCR applications on a single high-performance platform, the ViiA 7 Real-Time PCR System will vastly increase the productivity of researchers and inspire them to develop novel workflows that lead to an even greater understanding of the molecular basis of health and disease.”
Real-time PCR is a common laboratory method that measures PCR amplification as it occurs, cycle-by-cycle, allowing quantitative measurements to be made in the highly reproducible exponential phase of PCR. This enables extremely accurate and precise quantification of nucleic acids over a large dynamic range compared to traditional techniques. Since the introduction of the first real-time PCR instrument by Applied Biosystems 14 years ago, researchers have increasingly relied on applications of real-time PCR to gain a better understanding of the molecular basis of disease.
The ViiA 7 Real-Time PCR System has been designed to improve researcher productivity for research that includes how gene expression changes in response to pharmacological agents, and how genetic variation influences response to treatments for disease. The system optimizes and simplifies a host of real-time PCR applications; all integrated and easily accessible from a touch screen. A patent-pending OptiFlex™ System within the ViiA 7 System provides the sensitivity to detect a single copy of starting genetic material and offers enhanced multiplexing flexibility.
"In the past decade, quantitative real-time PCR has become a cornerstone technology for the life science researcher, allowing scientists around the world to identify molecular markers for disease and precisely measure how changes in activity at the genome level translate to significant molecular outcomes in living systems," said Peter Dansky, President of Molecular Biology Systems for Life Technologies. "By integrating a broad portfolio of real-time PCR applications on a single high-performance platform, the ViiA 7 Real-Time PCR System will vastly increase the productivity of researchers and inspire them to develop novel workflows that lead to an even greater understanding of the molecular basis of health and disease."
The ViiA 7 System's software integrates standard real-time PCR applications like nucleic acid quantification, detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and copy number variation detection with others that include high-resolution melting, protein analysis with proximity ligation technology, and gene expression analysis performed directly from cultured cells without RNA purification.
The ViiA 7 System includes usability enhancements that enable efficient and cost-effective research. Through one-touch protocols, researchers can operate the system without a separate computer and monitor runs from remote locations. Automated sample loading enables uninterrupted system operation and eliminates the need for robotic pipetting equipment.
The ViiA 7 Real-Time PCR System will be available in June.
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