Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
Health care industry eyes iPad
MHT's Julie Donnelly: Biotechs lag in social media use
MHT's Julie Donnelly: Pharmaceuticals find drug development partners in colleges
The parent of Connecticut’s 454 Life Sciences Corp., swiss giant Roche, announced that it is partnering with IBM Corp. to bring 454’s DNA sequencing technology together with IBM’s microelectronics expertise to make nanopore sequencing chips. The goal is to create a DNA decoder that will work very quickly and inexpensively, officials said.
New York-based IBM announced last October a “DNA transistor” which can squeeze a single strand of DNA through a nanopore. By adding 454’s sequencing technology, the chip can decode a patient’s DNA as quickly as it can be moved through the chip. 454’s can already handle large numbers of concurrent analyses, running through hundreds of thousands of strand an hour, officials said.
While financial details of the deal were not disclosed, Roche did say it would fund further development of the technology at IBM. Roche will develop and market all products based on the technology.
Officials say the collaboration will help reduce costs to achieve the planned goal of whole human genome sequencing at a cost of $100 to $1,000. 454 Life Sciences joined the 1,000 Genomes Project in 2008, a project aiming to produce a more vivid map of a human genome with an eye toward showing genetic variations important to biomedical research.
Roche bought 454 Life Sciences in 2007 in a deal said at the time to be worth up to a possible $155 million.
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
RSS Feeds
