Life Technologies Launches Ion AmpliSeq™ Custom Panels, Unlocking Thousands of Disease-Related Research Samples for Analysis

CARLSBAD, Calif., March 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) today launched Ion AmpliSeq™ Custom Panels that will transform disease research by unlocking hundreds of thousands of precious archived research samples containing low amounts of DNA from repositories around the globe. The highest multiplexed PCR-based solution on the market with a one-day workflow, Ion AmpliSeq™ Custom Panels require only 10 ng of input DNA and 3.5 hours for library construction - 100 times less DNA and twice as fast as other technologies. Ion AmpliSeq™ Designer, a new online application, also enables scientists to easily design and order the panels for the world's fastest-selling benchtop sequencer – the Ion Personal Genome Machine (PGM™).

"We are at a tipping point in genetics, particularly in cancer research," said Dr. Jonathan M. Rothberg, Founder and CEO of Ion Torrent. "With Ion AmpliSeq Custom Panels, scientists can analyze all their genes of interest in a single day using only 10 ng of input DNA.  No other available technology can match this level of speed and simplicity. Custom AmpliSeq enables discovery of key driver mutations in oncology samples and offers a path for use beyond research laboratories."

The Ion AmpliSeq technology enables custom targeted resequencing from samples with very low amounts of DNA such as formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue. This gives scientists the flexibility to analyze mutations in tens to hundreds of genes implicated in many different disease states, more simply and economically than ever before.

Ion AmpliSeq™ Designer extensively leverages Life Technologies' TaqMan® assay design pipeline to create optimized gene panels.  Panels can be designed in as little as 2.5 hours for regions up to 250 Kb in size, expanding to 1 Mb later in 2012, and may contain up to 1,536 amplicons per reaction.  Ion Torrent's intuitive data analysis methods enable rapid scaling from analyzing just a few genes to hundreds of genes – all in a single day.

Ion AmpliSeq™ Designer builds upon the well-received Ion AmpliSeq™ Cancer Panel, which has accelerated cancer research for scientists like Dr. Sean Grimmond, Professor at the Queensland Centre for Medical Genomics. Dr. Grimmond said: "We have been using custom AmpliSeq as a means to rapid screen the prevalence of mutations in a series of novel pancreatic cancer genes we have found through exome sequencing as part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium. AmpliSeq is an excellent validating tool in cancer genome studies due to its speed, minimal template requirements and its overall robustness."

Watch an introduction and an in-depth explanation of the Ion AmpliSeq™ Custom Panels and the Ion AmpliSeq™ Designer. For more information, visit www.ampliseq.com.

The above referenced products are for Research Use Only. Not intended for human diagnostics purposes.

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™, 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 our 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
Mauricio Minotta
760-929-2456
[email protected]

SOURCE Life Technologies