New England Biolabs and Rubicon Genomics Enter into Distribution Agreement for Single Cell Amplification Products

IPSWICH, Mass. and ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- New England Biolabs, Inc. (NEB) and Rubicon Genomics jointly announce that they have signed a distribution agreement whereby NEB will distribute a product that uses Rubicon's proprietary amplification technology to enable the amplification of DNA from single cells or extremely low amounts of input DNA. The Single Cell Whole Genome Amplification (WGA) Kit is the first product available from NEB targeted at the single cell amplification market, and is expected to find use in numerous research applications, including cancer studies.

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"New England Biolabs is excited to expand our product portfolio with reagents for single cell amplification, an emerging new area of genomic research," states Dr. Salvatore Russello, Associate Director of Business Development at NEB. "We look forward to facilitating the adoption of this unique technology in basic and applied research worldwide."

"NEB is an outstanding partner and we look forward to working with them to leverage our early successes in the diagnostic market into the research market, an important area of growth for our company," states Jim Koziarz, President and CEO of Rubicon. "This single cell amplification technology has already been widely adopted in the in vitro fertilization (IVF) market, and we are excited at the prospects this product has in research applications."

The Single Cell WGA Kit was released through NEB's global sales and distribution network on October 7th.

About NEB

Established in the mid 1970's, New England Biolabs, Inc. is the industry leader in the discovery and production of enzymes for molecular biology applications and now offers the largest selection of recombinant and native enzymes for genomic research. NEB continues to expand its product offerings into areas related to PCR, gene expression, sample preparation for next generation sequencing, cellular analysis, epigenetics and RNA analysis. Additionally, NEB is focused on strengthening alliances that enable new technologies to reach key market sectors. New England Biolabs is a privately held company, headquartered in Ipswich, MA and has extensive worldwide distribution through a network of exclusive distributors, agents and six subsidiaries located in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan and the UK. For more information about New England Biolabs visit www.neb.com

About Rubicon Genomics

Rubicon, located in Ann Arbor, MI, is a pre-analytical amplification company that has developed and commercialized reagents and kits that increase the analytical and clinical performance of analytical platforms including Q-PCR, microarrays, and Next Generation Sequencing. By producing highly pure DNA of uniform concentration and molecular weight these products increase the sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of conventional instrumentation in research and diagnostic applications, including analysis of single cells, formalin-fixed tissue and plasma.  For more information about Rubicon Genomics visit www.rubicongenomics.com.

SOURCE New England Biolabs, Inc.