RainDance Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of innovative microdroplet-based solutions for health and human disease research, announced today it has expanded the capabilities of its Sequence Enrichment Solution to enable the resequencing of up to 20,000 PCR targets. In addition, RainDance said it has become the first to support whole genome amplified samples for targeted resequencing.
In a presentation at Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s Exploring Next-Generation Sequencing conference, the company said these new enhancements represent a logical evolution of the RainDance technology platform and will add attractive benefits for the researcher investigating rare variants in large populations that cause cancer and other devastating diseases.
“With these expanded capabilities, we expect the market will accelerate its adoption of the RDT 1000, the centerpiece of our Sequence Enrichment Solution, for targeted resequencing studies across all genomic research sectors and in conjunction with all next-generation sequencing platforms,” said Christopher McNary, President and Chief Executive Officer, RainDance Technologies. “Our aggressive development program is rapidly creating new high-value protocols and applications, enabling RDT 1000 customers to increase the speed of their research into complex diseases,” said McNary.
Expanded Primer Library Enables Broader View of Human Genome
RainDance said it has expanded the content of its DNA primer library from 4,000 amplicons to 20,000 amplicons, while maintaining the precision provided by microdroplet-based PCR. This will allow researchers to incorporate a broader range of content for their large-scale targeted resequencing studies and to broaden their view of the human genome.
“Workflow and sample requirements will not change as the content is scaled up to 20,000 amplicons,” McNary said. “Our Sequence Enrichment Solution will maintain its performance and continue to provide the highest-quality data and sample uniformity.”
The company said the expanded DNA libraries will be available in the first quarter of 2010 and can be ordered through RainDance sales channels and service providers.
Whole Genome Amplification Protocol Supports Small Sample Sequencing
RainDance also announced it is the first company to support the use of whole genome amplified DNA samples for sequence enrichment. This capability will enable researchers to conduct studies with sample quantities that were previously too small for targeted resequencing. Now scientists can perform whole genomic amplification (WGA) on rare or small samples that have very low amounts of DNA, such as those found in tumor biopsies.
“The results of our studies demonstrate that RainDance’s Sequence Enrichment Solution is fully compatible with WGA samples and delivers the same high-quality results as assays performed with unamplified data,” said McNary.
The company said its WGA protocol is available now and has been validated using kits from Qiagen, GE Healthcare, and BioHelix Corporation. The kits can be ordered from their respective manufacturers.
“Both our expanded content library and WGA protocol are exceptionally easy to use and work seamlessly with our Sequence Enrichment Solution and RDT 1000 system,” McNary said. “These new capabilities are the first of many exciting applications for microdroplet-based PCR that RainDance will introduce in the coming weeks. These enhancements will help researchers rethink the way they design resequencing studies and will encourage new approaches to discovery. They will use the same proven hardware, consumables, and reagents presently available for our commercial solution,” he said.