HOUSTON, July 11, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LaserGen Inc. and National Instruments today announced a collaboration to develop a new next-generation sequencing (NGS) system. The system will be initially used to demonstrate accurate sequencing of the E. coli genome in the upcoming months using LaserGen's Lightning Terminators™, a breakthrough sequencing chemistry for reversible terminators, and National Instruments graphical system design software for control, imaging, and instrumentation. Thereafter, the companies intend to complete development of their NGS system and install it at a leading genome center for validation testing by the end of 2011.
"Collaborating with National Instruments, a global leader in graphical system design, will accelerate the commercialization of our unique reversible terminator technology," said Dr. Michael Metzker, chief executive officer of LaserGen. "The outcome of the LaserGen and National Instruments collaboration could be the first NGS technology that delivers fast, inexpensive and accurate genome data to the market." LaserGen has recently published its initial findings on the improved accuracy of its proprietary chemistry in Nucleic Acids Research.
National Instruments is an international leader in hardware and software for systems controls, and data acquisition and analysis. "Over the years, we have successfully made it possible for a broad range of life science companies to get their products to market faster," said John Hanks, vice president of Life Science at National Instruments. "Working with LaserGen is another exciting opportunity for the National Instruments graphical system design platform to accelerate the development and deployment of this potentially game-changing technology in the rapidly evolving DNA sequencing market."
The initial throughput specifications of the LaserGen and National Instruments system will be greater than a gigabase per day. System and reagents costs have yet to be released.
About LaserGen
Based in Houston, TX, LaserGen (www.lasergen.com) is an early stage biotechnology company that has developed a proprietary reversible terminator reagents set that can improve primary read accuracy compared with existing NGS technologies. In 2010, LaserGen was named one of the most promising Life Science companies at the 9th Annual Life Science Venture Forum hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship at Rice University.
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About National Instruments
National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. National Instruments empowers customers with modular cost-effective hardware and off-the-shelf software such as LabVIEW. Its customer base comprises more than 30,000 companies worldwide, with its largest customer representing approximately 4 percent of revenue in 2010 and no one industry representing more than 15 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, National Instruments has approximately 5,500 employees and direct operations in more than 40 countries. For the past 12 years, FORTUNE magazine has named National Instruments one of the 100 best companies to work for in America.
LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.