EnGenCore Announces Product Expansion for Improved DNA Sequencing Results
February 25, 2009COLUMBIA, SC – February 25, 2009 – EnGenCore, an emerging provider of DNA sequencing for both academic and commercial organizations and located and based at the Public Health Research Center at the University of South Carolina , is now offering TITANIUM Chemistry on the Roche 454 platform.
With Titanium, EnGenCore produces the same amount of data for a fraction of the time and cost that previously would have taken months and tens of thousands of dollars using first-generation technology. “Titanium quintuples the output per run on the GS FLX from 100 megabases to between 400 to 600,” said Jason Affourtit, director of advanced technologies at 454 Life Sciences, a center of excellence at Roche applied Science that develops and commercializes the innovative Genome Sequencer™ system for ultra-high-throughput DNA sequencing. “The average read length has increased from 200 to 300 base pairs to 350 to 400,” said Affourtit. Specific applications include de novo sequencing and re-sequencing of genomes, metagenomics, RNA analysis, and targeted sequencing of DNA regions of interest.
According to EnGenCore, sequencing outputs including Amplicons, 16s and barcoding using Titanium will be available this summer; however, the company continues to offer them using FLX chemistry.
EnGenCore director, Dr. Joe Jones said, The addition of the TITANIUM chemistry significantly enhances our services and further strengthens our standing as a provider of high quality sequencing. We can provide researchers with a tremendous amount of high quality data in a very efficient and cost-effective manner.
EnGenCore received national media attention after participating in a research effort led by Noah Fierer, Ph.D., of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Researchers found that human hands hold significantly more diverse bacteria – up to 150 in the samples studied – than other parts of the body, such as the mouth, esophagus and lower intestine. The study, titled “The Influence of Sex, Handedness, and Washing on the Diversity of Hand Surface Bacteria” and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offered an unprecedented level of detail according to its authors. The DNA sequencing for the study was performed at EnGenCore.
SCRA affiliate SC Launch has supported EnGenCore with a university start-up assistance grant. “EnGenCore is a good example of how important academic research and licensing by our South Carolina university research foundations commences the commercialization process with important academic research and helps strengthen the Knowledge Economy within the state,” said Bill Mahoney, SCRA CEO. As with many bioscience applications, EnGenCore relationship with Roche Applied Science is viewed by SC Launch as a positive indicator of future commercial success.
EnGenCore supplied quick turnaround and very professional service when we needed to process our samples quickly, said Edward F. DeLong, Ph.D., professor in the Departments of Biological Engineering & Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “The results were as good as we’ve seen anywhere with respect to success rate and throughput for pyrosequencing of complex environmental DNAs.
About EnGenCore
The facility provides integrated services for high-throughput genomic DNA sequencing for both academic and commercial research as well as regulated environments. EnGenCore provides bioinformatics data from the sequencing of DNA samples for projects in genomic research such as The influence of sex, handedness, and washing on the diversity of hand surface bacteria and A core gut microbiome in obese and lean twins. EnGenCore, LLC was formed in September 2008 to partner with the University of South Carolina to provide additional personnel, equipment, management, and marketing for the Environmental Genomics Core facility (EnGenCore) located within the Public Health Research Center at the Columbia, SC campus. The lab is a public-private partnership between the Arnold School of Public Health and EnGenCore, LLC. EnGenCore, LLC is an SCLaunch company. SC Launch is an affiliate of SCRA.
About SC Launch (http://www.sclaunch.org/)
SC Launch, an SCRA collaboration, assists entrepreneurial start-up companies with up-front counseling, seed-funding, and access to a powerful resource network. The SC Launch mission is to help generate knowledge economy jobs in South Carolina, enhance the state’s quality of life and provide opportunity for all South Carolinians in the new economy. For more information please visit www.sclaunch.org.
About SCRA (http://www.scra.org/)
SCRA is a global leader in applied research and commercialization services with offices in South Carolina, Ohio and in McLean, Virginia. SCRA collaborates to advance technology, providing technology-based solutions with assured outcomes to industry, government, and research universities in SC, the US and globally.
For more information, contact:
EnGenCore @ the University of South Carolina
921 Assembly Street, Room 413
Columbia, SC 29208
T: 803-777-4338
F: 803-777-3391
Website: www.engencore.com
[email protected]