Life Technologies Collaborates with USDA to Develop Same-Day, Multi-Strain E. coli Detection System

CARLSBAD, Calif., Nov. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) has received a Letter of No Objection from the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) for its RapidFinder™ STEC (Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli) Detection system.  Developed in collaboration with the USDA, the solution provides meat producers a new, validated solution that accurately detects the presence of multiple strains of E. coli in raw beef in just 10 hours.

The Letter of No Objection supports the test's effectiveness and allows companies to comply with the USDA's regulation standards. The RapidFinder system's quick turnaround time to achieve accurate results reduces the standard six-day process established by the USDA Microbiology Laboratory Guidebook (MLG).  While the MLG method provides confident results and isolation of E. coli, the traditional process is time consuming, labor intensive and requires too many reagents, all of which drive up cost. 

"The more strains of E. coli that meat producers can quickly and accurately analyze, the more likely they can ensure that beef is safe for public consumption," said Nir Nimrodi, Vice President and General Manager of Food Safety and Animal Health at Life Technologies. "The success of RapidFinder STEC is partially attributed to the large pool of leading customers who served as beta testers and with whom we also collaborated on this product. The USDA's Letter of No Objection further validates our solution's ability to satisfy the unique safety and business requirements within the meat industry."

RapidFinder™ significantly reduces the rate of false negative and false positive results, hurdles that can delay safe beef products from arriving to market. The system has also been designed to integrate seamlessly within existing testing programs, resulting in improved efficiency, productivity and cost savings.

Life Technologies collaborated with the USDA to develop a test to detect the presence of E. coli O157:H7, and later expanded the project to include the "Big 6" non-O157 strains (O26, O45, O103, O111, O121 and O145), which cause about 70 percent of non-O157 infection.

The validated system is capable of clearing negative beef samples (375 grams), and identifying presumptive positives in the same sample run with an additional hour of testing.  Its sensitivity provides greater confidence in the results since the solution can detect as little as 1 to 5 colony-forming units of pathogenic STEC in a single sample.

Life Technologies collaborated with the USDA to develop and validate RapidFinder™ and utilized Life's core competencies in DNA sample preparation, real-time PCR assay formats design, DNA sequencing and data interpretation.

RapidFinder™ STEC is for Testing of Food and Environmental Samples.

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®, 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: 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.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110216/MM49339LOGO)

Life Technologies Contact
Patty Zamora
760-476-7818 (work)
760-277-1669 (mobile)
[email protected]

SOURCE Life Technologies Corporation