Driven by the fundamental human desire to understand the world around us, the biological sciences began as a quest to uncover how life works.
Image Credit: Volha_R/Shutterstock.com
Fueled by experimentation and imagination, we set out to grasp nature’s underlying design and purpose. A significant turning point came with decoding the genetic code, which revealed the basic instructions for building life. Yet this discovery highlighted the elegance of a simple four-letter language and exposed the immense complexity it orchestrates. That complexity felt like a challenging mountain, its peak always just out of reach.
But the landscape began to shift with the rise of sequencing technologies. What was once slow and painstaking has become fast, affordable, and accessible thanks to next-generation sequencing. With these tools at hand—and continuing to advance—we are now able to map life's intricacies and uncover the evolutionary patterns behind them.
Rapid genotyping – The ‘why’ behind the science
A clear example of this progress was the scientific community’s ability to efficiently track COVID-19 variants as they evolved in real time.
This agility made it possible to adapt diagnostic testing kits rapidly. Inexpensive whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was central to driving these efforts. While the threat of emerging infectious diseases remains ever-present and should not be underestimated, the same genomic tools are now being applied to better understand complex human conditions, including inherited disorders and cancer.
Genomics services and products
The rising interest in non-invasive blood tests for genetic analysis has underscored two main challenges: sample preservation and efficient DNA extraction.
To tackle these, the HiPurA® cfDNA Collection tube (MBLA004) enables room temperature storage of blood samples, while the HiPurA® Cell-free DNA Purification Kit (MB586PCCT24) automates DNA extraction on the Insta NX Mag24 (MBLA020), ensuring high-quality samples for next-generation sequencing (NGS).
Field trials with over 300 clinical samples demonstrated that this optimized workflow successfully extracted sequencing-grade DNA for non-invasive prenatal testing and cancer diagnostics applications.
Utilizing HiGx360®’s Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) - MBS201 and Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) – MBS212 services revealed that these advancements produced samples suitable for various sequencing applications.
Another emerging frontier in personalized healthcare is the microbiome, a community of microorganisms that can serve as early indicators of health issues. HiMedia’s automated DNA extraction platform Insta NX Mag16+ (MBLA018) was employed to extract DNA from human fecal samples and was evaluated through a temporal sample preservation study. The company noted strong quantitative reproducibility in targeted metagenomics sequencing using HiGx360®’s microbiome profiling solution (MBS206).
Outlook & future promise
As next-generation sequencing (NGS) continues to progress at an extraordinary rate, its influence on healthcare is profound.
NGS can potentially transform diagnostics, treatment approaches, and preventive strategies by revealing the secrets within the genomes and microbiomes. With ongoing research and development, alongside the expertise of the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) and accredited facilities like HiMedia’s, NGS promises to usher in a new era of personalized medicine, empowering individuals to take a more active role in their health and wellness.
Image Credit: Himedia Laboratories Private Limited
About Himedia Laboratories Private Limited
With a presence in more than 150 countries, HiMedia is amongst the top three brands in the Bioscience Industry.
HiMedia Laboratories Private Limited is world renowned for manufacturing high quality culture media for microbiology. Additionally, we provide advanced media and products in the fields of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Plant Tissue Culture, Chemicals and Lab Aids/Equipment. As a Top Tier Global player, we are not only dedicated towards products but also striven towards introducing technologies such as Genomics Sequencing Services and Hydroponics.
HiMedia has managed to do this over decades as we have our own in-house bulk raw materials manufacturing plant. This enables us to deliver consistent quality products that conform to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2012 and WHO: GMP.
HiMedia Labs. caters to one of the broadest Biosciences product categories: our premier established line of Microbiology products and newer promising products in Molecular Biology, Automated and Molecular Instruments, Cell Biology, Chemicals, and Premium Grade Lab Consumables, amongst others. The COVID-19 pandemic revolutionized not the clinical industry’s thought process regarding the significance of Molecular Diagnostics products.
The ‘Molecular Biology and Virology Division’ of HiMedia Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. Also called as HiGenoMB® is a One Stop Solution Provider churning out potential Research and Industry oriented Molecular biology products for the past glorious decade. About 2000 different products such as Nucleic Acid Extraction and Amplification (PCR) Kits, Cloning Reagents, Buffers & Chemicals for proteomics studies, Automated Molecular Instrumentation including RT PCR machines and PCR thermal cyclers and DNA/RNA Extraction platforms are being produced. The Proficient researchers in this department are spear heading the challenging field of Molecular Diagnostics to provide a complete solution for clinical diagnosis, agriculture, veterinary sciences, food industry, drug discovery and forensic medicine with the use of Real Time PCR or quantitative PCR kits and thermal cyclers. Our Molecular Biology Division-has established an in-house Advanced Sequencing and Bioinformatics facility which marks HiMedia’s entry into the Services space.
Our Cell Biology segment contributes with technologies which have brought in Serum free media for biopharma applications, Viral Vaccine Production Platform, Multicompendial grade chemicals, cultivated meat, and 3D bioprinting.
Moving from conventional to advanced automated methods like MALDI-TOF (Autof MS 1000) has been our newest endeavour for Microbiology.
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