BETHLEHEM, Pa., Dec. 4, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- B. Braun CeGaT, a molecular diagnostics service provider with extensive experience in the area of epilepsy, will be exhibiting at the 68th Annual AES Meeting held December 5-9 in Seattle, WA. The Pennsylvania-based company will highlight a catalog of next generation sequencing-based tests that are designed to identify the specific molecular cause of various hereditary forms of epilepsy, migraines, and metabolic disorders in an individual patient.
B. Braun CeGaT currently offers 19 diagnostic panels covering over 400 total genes known to be associated with epilepsies and related disorders. The genes in these panels are sequenced at a very high coverage (800-1000x on average) to increase the probability of finding the causative variant in a patient's DNA. With over 2000 patient samples analyzed using these panels, the company has advanced knowledge and expertise in the genetic causes of epilepsy.
At the AES Annual Meeting, B. Braun CeGaT will also feature exome sequencing services for patients and families. In the majority of epilepsy cases, the exact cause of the seizures cannot be determined. The large number of potential causes including brain trauma, stroke, environmental factors, and genetic variations make pinpointing the specific underlying basis of a patient's disease a difficult task. The genetic factors linked to epilepsy are highly complex and involve interactions between multiple genes and pathways. Exome sequencing covers all protein-coding genes in the human genome (over 20,000). For epilepsies, the ability to interrogate all genes simultaneously, combined with B. Braun CeGaT's collective experience with diagnosing complex and rare diseases, can be particularly useful for finding undiscovered causative variants in cases where the cause cannot be readily identified.
Visit Booth #915 at the Washington State Convention Center during the 2014 AES Annual Meeting to learn more about the genetics of epilepsy and B. Braun CeGaT's diagnostic services.
About B. Braun CeGaT, LLC
B. Braun CeGaT, established in 2014, is the result of a partnership between B. Braun, a leading provider of medical products and services, and the Center for Genomics and Transcriptomics (CeGaT), a Germany-based molecular diagnostic laboratory. The company, which shares its headquarters with B. Braun in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was formed to serve the US sequencing and diagnostics market by offering innovative molecular diagnostic services developed by CeGaT to US-based healthcare providers.
CeGaT has created and pioneered diagnostic services for a wide range of disorders including cancer, epilepsy, neuromuscular disease, neurodegenerative disease, eye/vision-related disease, and more. CeGaT's approach utilizes recent advancements in next generation sequencing technology, allowing for the simultaneous analysis of all genes associated with a particular disease. The information revealed by these tests can be used to identify the underlying cause of the disease in an individual patient and to help guide the course of treatment based on the patient's unique genetic profile.