The deal will enable researchers to more easily perform high-throughput, high-density real-time PCR with small, degraded, and hard-to-replace specimens, including formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue.
Geospiza and NuGen Technologies will combine their informatics and sample-prep products to provide a next- generation sequencing workflow targeted toward large disease research studies.
While Biocius' RapidFire technology has traditionally been used by pharma firms for drug-screening work, "one of the key opportunities" Agilent sees is applying the platform "to the clinical proteomics space," a company official said.
At the Association for Mass Spectrometry's Applications to the Clinical Lab meeting this week, proteomics researchers highlighted the need for higher-throughput assays, with several introducing automated SISCAPA workflows employing instruments from vendors including Agilent Technologies and Thermo Fisher Scientific.
The new product, called the DeepSeq FFPE Solution, runs on the company's RDT 1000 microdroplet PCR instrument and allows researchers to discover rare mutations.
The partners aim to enable automatic processing from a wide range of sample types, such as nucleic acids extracted from sorted cells, fine needle aspirates, formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue, and other limited or degraded clinical samples.
