NEW YORK, March 31 - Thomas Jefferson University has purchased a PSQ HS 96A genotyping system from Pyrosequencing as part of a collaborative agreement to analyze genes and develop applications for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the company said today.
The university will use the genotyping system to study genetic variations in genes related to IBD. Ultimately, it plans to develop a gene-based diagnostic tool "that we expect to be much simpler and faster, while as effective as current methods," said Paolo Fortina, professor of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.
Pyrosequencing will commercialize any molecular diagnostic products relating to the IBD research in collaboration with a third party, said Jerry Williamson, president of Pyrosequencing.
The agreement builds on an existing collaboration between Pyrosequencing and Fortina on gene-based diagnostic tests for hearing loss. Fortina used Pyrosequencing's technology to study variations in the connexin 26 gene implicated in a common type of inherited hearing loss.