Molecular Genetics Core Facility at Children's Hospital Boston Selects HybSelect from febit for Targeted Resequencing

LEXINGTON, Mass., and HEIDELBERG, Germany, Jan. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The Molecular Genetics Core Facility (MGCF) at Children's Hospital Boston chose febit's HybSelect technology which will enable genetics researchers to conduct the highly economic targeted enrichment of genes of interest for resequencing. In January the core facility will be receiving the Geniom RT Analyzer® from febit to perform HybSelect.

"We feel that febit's HybSelect technology will be a powerful tool for our researchers, in conjunction with our Applied Biosystems SOLiD platform, at a reasonable cost," said Hal Schneider, Core Manager of the MGCF. "The ease and flexibility of HybSelect allows us to study a variety of genetic diseases and multiplex bar-coded libraries, making sequence capture projects much more accessible and affordable for our investigators."

The economy of HybSelect increases the potential for widespread use of next generation sequencing in clinical studies. Instead of sequencing the complete genomes of only a few patients, HybSelect enables the analysis of specific genes of interest from large patient cohorts for the same price and data management effort.  The larger patient pool now provides the statistically relevant data that are necessary for clinical studies.

Peer Staehler, CSO at febit, said: "Targeted enrichment and multiplexing are necessary to truly benefit from the advantages of high performance sequencers, and febit has developed HybSelect to meet this need. Together with Life Technologies' SOLiD 3, HybSelect can sequence 16 parallel samples in one run. febit is currently working on an upgrade to a 96-plex barcode set. This will enable sequencing of 2,304 samples in six working days."

About febit

febit develops, produces and markets flexible automated solutions for enabling biochip applications in Life Sciences. febit's product portfolio includes various instruments, optimized assays and bioanalytical services, complemented by bioinformatics software and consulting.

The key applications are HybSelect, febit's innovative DNA capture method for Next-Generation-Sequencing, and hands-off, amplification free microRNA profiling. Both are taking advantage of the advanced microfluidics of the patented Geniom Biochip to offer the highest degree of automation, flexibility and efficiency available.

For more information, please visit www.febit.com.

About MGCF at Children's Hospital Boston

The Molecular Genetics Core Facility is a non-profit core laboratory in the Program in Genomics and Genetics Division of Children's Hospital Boston offering genomics services for academic research institutions.  The overall objective of the MGCF is to provide a location where researchers can have access to high quality, low cost genomic technology services and expertise in a timely, affordable manner.

For more information please visit http://core.iddrc.org/molecular-genetics

Contact: febit group, Eva Sterzel, eva.sterzel@febit .de, +49 (0)6221 6510-300

Russo Partners, Martina Schwarzkopf, [email protected], +1 212 845-4292

SOURCE febit