Life Technologies' Ion AmpliSeq™ Exome Certified Service Provider Program Adds Eleven New Members

CARLSBAD, Calif., Oct. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) today announces that, due to increased demand for Ion AmpliSeq™ exome sequencing, the Ion AmpliSeq™ Exome Certified Service Provider program, an organization of some of the world's top service providers that sequence and analyze human exomes, is expanding with 11 new members.  Using the Ion AmpliSeq™ Exome Kit, the Ion Proton™ Sequencer, and the Ion Reporter™ Software, service providers can sequence two exomes in a single run-going from DNA to results in just two days.

Until now, exome sequencing through a service provider has cost $1,000 or more, taken six to eight weeks and required as much as three micrograms of DNA. Exome sequencing with Ion AmpliSeq™ Exome Certified Service Providers requires just 50 ng of DNA and is competitively priced, making exome sequencing accessible to any researcher. This program eliminates the need to batch samples just to make the price of exome sequencing affordable.

In addition to being faster and more affordable, the Ion AmpliSeq™ Exome Kit delivers the most uniform sequencing coverage in the industry*, with up to 98 percent of bases covered at 10-fold, and up to 95 percent of bases covered at 20-fold, for a single exome. 

The Ion AmpliSeq™ Exome Certified Service Provider program welcomes the following North American institutions:

• Sanford Burnham, San Diego, Calif.
• SeqWright Genomic Services, Houston, Texas
• GENEWIZ Inc., South Plainfield, N.J.
• Affiliated Genetics, Salt Lake City, Utah
• Eureka Genomics, Hercules, Calif.
• University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.
• University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
• The Ohio State University. Columbus, Ohio
• AltheaDx, San Diego, Calif.
• PrimBio Research Institute, Exton, Penn.
• University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M.

"This kind of fast turnaround time and simplicity will make a huge difference in a research setting like ours," said Craig Hauser, Vice President for Scientific Resources at Sanford Burnham. "We need answers quickly, but we also need a sequencer whose straightforward operation provides reliable results, and this delivers both."

"Under the Ion CSP program, we deal directly with the customers, no middle man, and there's no capital equipment 'buy-in' required to participate," said Dr. Fei Lu, General Manager of SeqWright Genomic Services. "Best of all, the low sample size means there are many different types of samples that can be exome sequenced."

"We have been successful with using Ion AmpliSeq™ panels and now have the ability to offer the entire exome on our Proton systems with the Ion AmpliSeq™ Exome. We see incredible potential as we specialize in high quality sequencing," said Dr. Ginger Zhou, Head of Next Generation Sequencing (US) at GENEWIZ. "More importantly, we're making our customers happier with a faster turnaround time and a lower cost."

Customers of the provider program have the ability to get their data from Ion Reporter™ Software, which provides a list of mutations, including copy number variation, and associated annotations drawn from dozens of public databases within hours after a sequencing run. It also enables service labs to access their data through the web and rich filtering tools that help them focus on the most relevant variants.

"With such demand and leading institutions joining in North America, the program will soon expand globally," said Maneesh Jain, Vice President of Marketing, Product and Program Management at Life Technologies. "The service provider program model allows customer samples to be performed quickly and easily to fit any size research project."

The Ion AmpliSeq™ Exome Certified Service Provider program is part of the Ion Certified Service Provider program. To learn more, visit: lifetechnologies.com/ioncsp

The Ion AmpliSeq™ Exome Kit and Ion Proton™ Sequencer are For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

*For complete details on the performance of the Ion AmpliSeq™ Exome Kit and Ion Proton™ Sequencer, go to our web page at lifetechnologies.com/ionexome.

Register now for Ion World 2013 on Oct. 21-22 in Boston just before ASHG. Scientists from around the world will present discoveries and genomic applications enabled by Ion Torrent's next generation sequencing solutions

About Life Technologies 
Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) is a global biotechnology company that is committed to providing the most innovative products and services to leading customers in the fields of scientific research, genetic analysis and applied sciences. With a presence in more than 180 countries, the company's portfolio of 50,000 end-to-end solutions is secured by more than 5,000 patents and licenses that span the entire biological spectrum—scientific exploration, molecular diagnostics, 21^st century forensics, regenerative medicine and agricultural research. Life Technologies has approximately 10,000 employees and had sales of $3.8 billion in 2012.

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Life Technologies Contact:
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SOURCE Life Technologies Corporation