SÃO PAULO--Amersham Pharmacia Biotech's high-throughput DNA sequencing system, MegaBace 1000, was picked recently by the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the State of São Paolo Research Foundation to speed up efforts here to discover cancer-causing genes. The first of its kind in South America, the $10 million project is being funded equally by the research foundation and by the São Paulo branch of the Ludwig Institute, which is based in San Diego.
The project will cover six new Brazilian sequencing centers, including the Ludwig Institute, each of which will use a MegaBace 1000 as part of the endeavor to decode approximately 500,000 sequences of DNA by February 2001.