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PerkinElmer Adds DNA Quality Assessment Analyzer to Agena Nucleic Acid Detection System

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Agena Bioscience and PerkinElmer said today that they have agreed to incorporate PerkinElmer's LabChip GX Touch nucleic acid analyzer for the quality assessment and quantitation of DNA into the upfront workflow of Agena's MassArray system.

Specifically, the companies are focusing on targeting circulating tumor DNA for liquid biopsy applications, where the combined systems support a low-cost, sample-to-result workflow that can be completed in a single day.

PerkinElmer's LabChip GX Touch nucleic acid analyzer provides accurate electrophoretic visual quality assessment and quantitation down to 25 pg/μl for DNA in as little as 30 seconds, with flexible sample throughput options including 96-well and 384-well, the company said. This provides flexibility for Agena's 96 and 384-chip systems and pairs well with the chemistry behind its UltraSeek liquid biopsy oncogene panels, it added. The MassArray platform uses matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry to detect nucleic acids and genetic variations.

In evaluations performed by Agena's scientific affairs team, the LabChip system ensured that sufficient DNA was present in samples to satisfy the parameters of the UltraSeek chemistry while efficiently identifying samples compromised by pre-analytical variables that could result in false negative results, the firms noted.

"We found the speed of Agena's MassArray workflow and the sensitivity of their UltraSeek liquid biopsy assay to be an ideal pairing with the rapid quality assessment using our LabChip GX Touch system," Mark Dupal, PerkinElmer's global portfolio manager of automation and microfluidics for applied genomics, said in a statement.

"Controlling pre-analytical variables is an important component of delivering robust reproducible liquid biopsy analysis. The combination of LabChip GX Touch nucleic acid analyzer's sample qualification with UltraSeek assay's highly sensitive, multiplexed chemistry delivers a powerful liquid biopsy sample-to-result solution," added Darryl Irwin, Agena's senior director of scientific affairs. "We believe this collaboration will provide many benefits to customers by optimizing their liquid biopsy performance."