Bio-Rad Acquires QuantaLife and Digital PCR Technology:
Submitted by admin on October 5, 2011 - 16:04Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. announced today that it has purchased QuantaLife, Inc. for $162 million in cash plus potential future milestone payments. Learn more »
Copy number variation and selection during reprogramming to pluripotency
Submitted by admin on March 28, 2011 - 16:14
Referenced in this Nature article, significant changes in copy number are evident in between induced pluripotent cells, fibroblasts and embryonic stem cells. The authors conclude that the reprogramming process is associated with high mutation rates, causing increased levels of CNVs and genetic mosaicism in the resultant early-passage human iPS cell lines. Their data also suggests that de novo CNVs are the consequence of replication stress. Many of the findings in this article may be replicated with QuantaLife's new system that will quantify copy number with high levels of precision.
ASHG 2010, QuantaLife Introduces Droplet Digital PCR
Submitted by admin on March 9, 2011 - 16:27
Dr. Serge Saxonov, VP Application Development, QuantaLife introduces the third generation of PCR, Droplet Digital™ PCR. QuantaLife's digital PCR is robust and readily accessable to any lab. Dr. Saxonov describes applications including Copy Number Variation and Rare Mutation Detection of digital PCR implemented on the new QuantaLife Droplet Digital PCR System . The presentation was made during the meeting for the American Society for Human Genetics in Washington DC in late 2010. Dr. Serge Saxonov is introduced by Dr. Bill Colston, CEO of QuantaLife.
UMMC to test Droplet Digital™ PCR detection of MRSA
Submitted by admin on November 9, 2010 - 17:38
UMMC to test Droplet Digital™ PCR detection of MRSA. The new device could make it possible to quickly screen all hospital admissions and identify infected patients before symptoms appear. The new project will be funded by the National Institutes of Health.
1000 Genomes Data Yields a Comprehensive Map of Human Copy Number Variation
Submitted by admin on November 1, 2010 - 16:11
The 1000 Genomes Project has released results of the pilot phase, which included whole genome sequencing of 179 individuals at varying levels of coverage. Peter Sudamant and colleagues made use of this groundbreaking dataset to analyze copy number variation and shed light on previously inaccessible regions of the genome. Roughly 1,000 large CNVs were identified, many of which showed dramatic differences in allele frequencies between populations, expansions specific to the human lineage and effects on genes implicated in a range of disorders. Droplet Digital™ PCR offers an ideal platform to conduct follow up studies to untangle the functional impact of these variants.
Click to view the Nature paper on 1000 genomes
Click to view the Science paper from Sudemont and colleagues
On-Chip, Real-Time, Single-Copy Polymerase Chain Reaction in Picoliter Droplets
Submitted by admin on November 1, 2010 - 15:46
The technology that forms the foundation of Droplet Digital™ PCR was first reported in the journal Analytical Chemistry in 2007 by a team of engineers and scientists from The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of California, Davis. The article describes the design of a system for picoliter droplet generation, PCR amplification, and high-resolution, single-copy nucleic acid detection. Using a microfluidic device to generate a stream of monodisperse droplets, the team was able to demonstrate a 6-order of magnitude reduction in reactor size compared to commercial real-time PCR systems, along with a substantial reduction in the number of cycles required for detection. Click here to learn more.CNVs implicated in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Submitted by admin on July 23, 2010 - 13:53
Recent findings reported in Lancet indicate that patients with ADHD have a higher incidence of CNVs compared with controls. Even more, the CNVs in ADHD are similar to those implicated in autism and schizophrenia that have been identified on a stretch of chromosome 16. Droplet Digital™ PCR offers a reliable way to verify results like these.
Click here to view the article abstract.
Accelerated mutagenesis prevails late into tumor progression and might serve as robust prognostic indicator
Submitted by admin on June 4, 2010 - 07:49
Scientists at the University of Washington designed the random mutation assay (RMA)--which uses microwell plates and real-time PCR--and published a groundbreaking 2006 article in PNAS in which the RMA was used to prove that the frequency of random mutations increases with tumor progression. We posit that the RMA could be easily adapted for use with Droplet Digital PCR, eliminating costly purification steps that limit the use of a mutagenesis rate as a routine clinical tool.
