ANN ARBOR – Rubicon Genomics has launched the first product in its ThruPLEX family of sample preparation kits designed and optimized for next generation sequencing.

ThruPLEX-FD kits leverage Rubicon?s patented DNA repair and ligation methods to deliver significantly faster and more sensitive sequencing of plasma, formalin-fixed, ChIP and other fragmented DNA with substantially increased throughput. ThruPLEX kits are also applicable to sample preparation for PCR and microarray testing.

?The accelerated adoption of NGS technology has created a demand for faster and more sensitive sample preparation,? noted James Koziarz, CEO of Rubicon. ?Breaking with the traditional multi-step process requiring intermediate transfers and purifications, ThruPLEX uses more efficient enzymology to repair, ligate and amplify the DNA molecules in a single tube. Our patented three-step process enables high quality sequencing of clinical samples that were previously too small or degraded to be tested.?

?Our experience with the ThruPLEX-FD library prep has been extremely positive,? said Henry Long, Ph.D., Associate Director of the Center for Functional Cancer Epigenetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institut. ?Both at Rubicon and in our hands it has proven able to generate high quality, diverse libraries from 10-times less input than other kits we have used. For us this technology truly enables the study of samples that simply weren?t possible before adopting it.?

ThruPLEX-FD is a streamlined one-tube, three-step process without intermediate purifications, transfers, columns or gels. The reduced steps and material transfers decrease the likelihood of experimental variability, bias and contamination. DNA is sequencing-ready in two hours with as little as 15 minutes of hands-on time. A technician can prepare 192 ThruPLEX samples a day?a 15-fold increase in productivity compared to current methods. ThruPLEX-FD is designed and validated for use with samples as small as 50 picograms of human DNA and can be used in plasma, FFPE, cDNA, ChIP and population studies. ThruPLEX-FD is currently available as 48-reaction, 12-index kits for sequencing on Illumina HiSeq, MiSeq and Genome Analyzer instruments. ThruPLEX-FD kits are also being developed for additional formats and platforms.

a>>