Life Technologies Launches Compendia Oncomine® NGS Power Tools for Cancer Researchers, Discovers Novel Gene Fusions

CARLSBAD, Calif., June 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) announced today the introduction of Oncomine® Next Gen Sequencing Power Tools, an analytics offering that will allow cancer researchers to explore results from in-depth analysis of next generation sequencing (NGS) data, including data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. In total, more than 4,500 paired tumor and samples have been analyzed to date.

"NGS has significant potential to deliver insights into what drives cancers and how the disease might be combated," said Dan Rhodes, Ph.D., head of medical science informatics for Life Technologies.  "However, the field has only begun to take advantage of the enormous amounts of data becoming available. The Oncomine NGS Power Tools provide simple access to comprehensive findings, many of them novel, from a team with a proven track record of mining scientific value from big data."

Oncomine® NGS Power Tools constitutes a suite of software tools that enable cancer researchers to easily survey novel predicted driver mutations and gene fusions across all cancers and within two dozen specific cancers types, as well as explore simple summary analyses that integrate multiple types of gene and pathway aberrations with clinical data.

In addition to basic research applications, the NGS tools also provide a foundation for specialized biomarker services to pharma and biotech customers in their efforts to evaluate NGS data for biomarker and companion diagnostic development.   

With collaborators from the University of Michigan Medical School, Life Technologies scientists used the NGS Power Tools to discover FGFR gene fusions across a range of cancer types. These results are reported in the current issue of Cancer Discovery.

The investigators discovered FGFR fusions across a highly diverse set of nine distinct tumor types, including lung squamous cell cancer, bladder cancer, thyroid cancer, oral cancer, glioblastoma, and head and neck squamous cell cancer. Normal cell lines transfected with fusion constructs exhibited enhanced growth that was sensitive to FGFR inhibitors, indicating that the fusion genes were in fact acting to drive the cancers.

"We found that FGFR fusions occur across many more tumor types than has been previously reported," said Rhodes. "As a number of clinical trials for FGFR inhibitors are underway, these data underscore the importance of conducting trials based on mutation profiles rather than tissue of origin."

"Life Tech's Oncomine NGS Tools provide access to a substantial collection of results from NGS analysis, not available from any other source," said Dan Robinson, Ph.D., assistant research professor at the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, University of Michigan Medical School. "With early access, we were able to expand our conclusions on the importance of targeting FGFR gene fusions in human cancer."  

The new Oncomine® offering extends the Power Tools product line, which includes Oncomine® Mutation Browser, Copy Number Browser, and Gene Expression Browser, all containing data from both sequencing and microarray studies and utilized by pharmaceutical companies in their drug discovery and development work. In addition to products serving the pharmaceutical industry, Life Technologies recently launched the Oncomine® Gene Browser for the academic and smaller biotech market. The Gene Browser provides a comprehensive gene summary at a moderate price point and is ideal for researchers working with small numbers of genes.

The Oncomine® product line was initially developed by Compendia Bioscience, which was acquired by Life Technologies in October, 2012.

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.

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:

Suzanne Clancy
760-602-4545
858-205-4235 (mobile) 
[email protected]

SOURCE Life Technologies Corporation