Life's Great Adventure - Lab in a Mini on Tour
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GLASGOW, Scotland -
- From small beginnings come big discoveries as lab in a Mini democratizes DNA sequencing
Life Technologies [http://www.lifetechnologies.com/us/en/home.html] (NASDAQ: LIFE) announced the start of its Ion Torrent(TM) Mini Lab Tour across the UK featuring a fully functional benchtop Personal Genome Machine (PGM(TM)) DNA sequencer nestled in the boot of a Mini.
Not so long ago, you needed a PhD and a lab full of equipment to sequence the DNA of a bacterium or virus, now it can be done in the back of a car - and a small one at that.
Life Technologies has kitted out a pair of Minis with the Ion PGM, demonstrating how simple and accessible this new technology is. The cars start their UK university tour at the Glasgow Science Centre on 27th August at a launch event where schoolchildren will experience this DNA sequencer first hand.
The PGM demonstrated its potential last year during the E.coli outbreak in Germany. Health officials confronted by this "superbug" outbreak were able to identify the strain of concern within hours, rather than days or weeks, and use that as a basis to begin planning treatment, potentially saving thousands of lives.
"Aside from being cool to look at, the Mini labs with Ion Torrent technology demonstrate just how we can make accurate sequencing accessible for all," said Peter Silvester, Life Technologies' President, Europe, Middle East & Africa. "We're also using this event to announce our vision for Scotland to become a centre for stratified medicine and we are making the first steps towards making this a reality with a proposed Innovation Centre that uses this sequencing technology for research."
Stratified or "personalised" medicine aims to use an individual's unique genetic information (DNA sequence) to help physicians target the right medicine, to the right person at the right time. This avoids the use of drugs that won't work for the individual or disease and minimises the potential for adverse side effects.
The Minis will go on tour around the UK stopping off at major universities to provide demonstrations. For further details visit: www.sequencingforall.com
All products referenced are for Research Use Only, and not intended for any animal or human therapeutic or diagnostic use.
About Life Technologies
Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) is a global biotechnology company with customers in more than 160 countries using its innovative solutions to solve some of today's most difficult scientific challenges. Quality and innovation are accessible to every lab with its reliable and easy-to-use solutions spanning the biological spectrum with more than 50,000 products for translational research, molecular medicine and diagnostics, stem cell-based therapies, forensics, food safety and animal health. Its systems, reagents and consumables represent some of the most cited brands in scientific research including: Ion Torrent(TM), Applied Biosystems®, Invitrogen(TM), GIBCO®, Ambion, Molecular Probes®, Novex®, and TaqMan®. Life Technologies employs approximately 10,400 people and upholds its ongoing commitment to innovation with more than 4,000 patents and exclusive licenses. LIFE had sales of $3.7 billion in 2011. Visit us at our website: www.lifetechnologies.com.
MINI is a registered trademark of BMW Group. BMW Group is not a sponsor of the Ion Torrent(TM) Mini Lab Tour.
Source:
Life Technologies
Media Contacts: David Robertson, Leader, External Communications, Life Technologies, Email: david.robertson@lifetech.com, Tel: +44-141-814-5889
