Life Technologies Bolsters its 60 Percent Market Share Lead in Benchtop Sequencers with 12 New Ion Torrent™ Products

CARLSBAD, Calif., Feb. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) today announced a dozen innovative new products for the Ion Torrent™ platform that will make sequencing faster, simpler and more accessible for scientists, driving discovery and advancing clinical research around the world.

"These new products continue the pace of relentless innovation that in just two years enabled Ion Torrent™ semiconductor sequencing technology to scale more than 1,000-fold and gain a 60 percent market share of benchtop sequencers," said Dr. Jonathan M. Rothberg, Ion Torrent Founder and CEO. "More than 90 peer-reviewed publications and the world's largest online sequencing community, with over 15,000 members, reflect the huge demand for faster, simpler and more affordable sequencing."

Sample Preparation

Ion Torrent™ technology continues to simplify and automate key workflows, decreasing turnaround times and expanding access to next-generation sequencing for both basic and translational researchers.

• Ion Library Equalizer™ Kits eliminate the need for library quantification and library dilutions prior to clonal amplification for Ion AmpliSeq™ DNA and Ion genomic fragment libraries. The kit reduces hands-on time, sample variability and reagent cost, while increasing processing speed for high-throughput applications. 
• Ion TargetSeq™ Exome Rapid Protocol reduces the capture step to just 16 hours, enabling whole human exome enrichment and sequencing on the Ion Proton™ Sequencer in as little as a day and a half, making the Ion Exome sequencing workflow the fastest method for performing human exome sequencing. The protocol is now available from Ion field application specialists.
• Ion AmpliSeq™ RNA Library Kit requires as little as 500 pg of unfixed RNA and 5 ng of FFPE RNA and is compatible with Ion Express™ Barcode Modules for multiplexing multiple samples on a single Ion semiconductor sequencing chip.
• Ion Total RNA-Seq Kit for AB Library Builder™ System enables the analysis of either whole transcriptome or small RNA expression with a single reagent kit. The kit requires as little as 500 ng of total RNA, or as little as 50 ng of enriched small RNA.

Ion AmpliSeq™ Technology

Ion AmpliSeq™ technology is the industry-leading solution for targeted sequencing, with over 100,000 reactions run in the past year. Today, Life Technologies is launching the first targeted RNA panels for a next-generation sequencer, a targeted mouse DNA panel and two new community panels. All of the products below are available at www.ampliseq.com.

• Ion AmpliSeq™ Designer 2.0 now enables researchers to design panels for sequencing human DNA and RNA, as well as mouse DNA. The Ion AmpliSeq™ Designer now supports up to 6,144 primer pairs in a single tube, up to 5 Mb designs, the industry's highest multiplexed solution.
• Ion AmpliSeq™ RNA Cancer Panel is a single pool that targets the same 50 tumor suppressor and oncogenes covered by the Ion AmpliSeq™ DNA Cancer Hotspot Panel v2.
• Ion AmpliSeq™ RNA Apoptosis Panel uses a single pool of primers representing 267 genes involved in the cellular apoptosis pathway, including genes associated with death receptor mediated apoptosis, c-myc and p53 mediated apoptosis.
• Ion AmpliSeq™ RNA Custom Panels enable scientists to choose from over 20,000 targeted genes to survey gene expression fold changes in samples requiring as little as 500 pg of unfixed RNA or 5 ng of FFPE RNA. The assay yields greater than 5 logs of dynamic range for up to 300 genes in a single tube assay.
• Ion AmpliSeq™ DNA Custom Mouse Panel uses a single pool of primers with up to 6,144 amplicons and requires just 10 ng of genomic DNA to target up to 5 Mb of mouse genomic regions.

Ion Informatics

Ion Torrent™ services continue to improve in performance and simplicity of data analysis, with advances in three key areas:

• Torrent Browser Plug-in Store enables anyone to create and share plug-ins that provide additional data analysis functionality within Torrent Suite™ Software. In less than a year, over 35 plug-ins have been contributed to the Ion Community and over 6,000 have been downloaded.
• Torrent Suite™ Software v3.4 and the new Torrent Variant Caller offer integrated signal processing, base calling, mapping and variant detection, and a new compressed file format, all delivered through a web browser and preconfigured on a Torrent Server. This software is available for download now.
• Ion Reporter™ Software v1.4 is a streamlined bioinformatics solution that enables scientists to identify and interpret human genetic variants from either the Ion PGM™ or Ion Proton™ sequencers. The software brings rich genomic annotation, easy-to-use filters and reproducible analysis to molecular biologists. Researchers can try Ion Reporter™ Software for free through May 31, 2013.

All products referenced are for research use only and not for use in diagnostic procedures.

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 agricultural biotechnology, 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™, Applied Biosystems®, Invitrogen™, Gibco®, Ambion®, Molecular Probes® and Novex®. 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 $3.8 billion in 2012. Visit us at our website: http://www.lifetechnologies.com.

Life Technologies' Safe Harbor Statement
This press release includes forward-looking statements about Life Technologies' anticipated results that involve risks and uncertainties. Some of the information contained in this press release, including, but not limited to, statements as to industry trends and Life Technologies' plans, objectives, expectations and strategy for its business, contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. When used, the words "believe," "plan," "intend," "anticipate," "target," "estimate," "expect" and the like, and/or future tense or conditional constructions ("will," "may," "could," "should," etc.), or similar expressions, identify certain of these forward-looking statements. Important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are detailed in filings made by Life Technologies with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Life Technologies undertakes no obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

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Life Technologies Contact
Wes Conard
650-243-6019
[email protected]

SOURCE Life Technologies Corporation