GnuBIO Announces Delivery of First Early Access Desktop DNA Sequencing System to the Montreal Heart Institute
Boston, MA, (June 8, 2011) At the 3rd Annual Consumer Genetics Conference, GnuBIO announced it will deliver the Company’s first Early Access Sequencing system to the Université de Montréal Pharmacogenomics Centre Laboratory at the Montreal Heart Institute by July 2011. This unique desktop DNA sequencing system is being designed for the point-of-care market, and will enable physicians to make genetic determinations on patients pre-dispositions within an hour - as opposed to waiting more than a week for results. This quick turn-around time, coupled with deeper coverage of DNA, longer read lengths and a fully-scalable platform, translates into broader testing for the public that has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of healthcare. A commercial system is slated to be available by end of 2012.
The GnuBIO System is the first fully-scalable DNA sequencing platform. The cost and time of the technology can be scaled as a function of the number of bases sequenced. This is in contrast to all other sequencing platforms whereby a fixed number of samples are needed in order to amortize the cost of the sequencing run, thus requiring researchers and clinicians to wait until they have collected enough samples to start the genomic analysis. To date, GnuBIO’s Early Access Sequencing system is the only technology which allows a per sample cost as a function of genomic region. Whether a user runs one sample or 1,000 samples across a fixed region, the cost per sample will remain the same. Conversely, if a sample is run across a smaller region, the costs decrease.
Our benchtop DNA sequencing system will shift the point of testing from the large clinical reference labs to the smaller hospital labs and the physicians office - making the tests more accessible, not to mention cost efficient, said John Boyce, President and CEO of GnuBIO. The GnuBIO System is projected to sell for a cost of under $50,000 USD.
The Pharmacogenomics Centre at the Montreal Heart Institute will be the first organization to test this novel system. It will start to screen some patients for key targeted genes within their laboratory upon receipt of this new system in July.
Its remarkable how much the sequencing technology has evolved over the past couple of years, said Michael Phillips, Director of the Pharmacogenomics Centre of the Montreal Heart Institute. The GnuBIO System will enable us to more cost effectively screen patients within the Montreal Heart Institute Cardiovascular Genetics Centre for a larger number of genes for risk factors that predispose to sudden cardiac death. Ultimately, this platform has the potential to improve medical decisions based on genomics by guiding clinical treatments for better health outcomes.
“What is paramount to the clinical lab is accuracy and turn-around time, said Michael Phillips. “The ability to inject a sample and have the sequencing results, with very high coverage and long read lengths, during a patients doctor visit, as opposed to days, will not only transform the way diagnostics are conducted in the clinical lab but will also pave the way for point of care diagnostics in the physicians office.
I expect that this technology, once commercial released, could make transformative changes in the clinical market, he continued.
For additional information about GnuBIO and the GnuBIO System, please visit http://www.gnubio.com/.
About GnuBIO
GnuBIO, Inc. (www.gnubio.com) is a private company and a pioneer in the field of scalable DNA sequencing technology for the Diagnostic and Applied Markets. Utilizing its proprietary microfluidic and emulsion technologies, GnuBIO will work within these markets to develop nucleic acid analysis based systems that scale as a function of both patient sample and genomic region. The GnuBIO System has the capability of running numbers of samples that are in line with diagnostic and applied market endeavors for a cost that represents orders of magnitude less than current technology. The same system also has the headroom to compete in the high throughput market, and will achieve a comparable output, in hours, to what the leading technology takes weeks to produce.