SYGNIS Pharma AG’ New TthPrimPol Polymerase Took Centre Stage At Zing DNA Polymerases Conference 2014

Madrid, Spain and Heidelberg, Germany, September 22, 2014 – SYGNIS AG (Frankfurt: LIO1; ISIN: DE000A1RFM03; Prime Standard) announced that it launched a newly characterized thermostable member of the recently discovered family of PrimPol polymerases at Zing DNA Polymerases Conference 2014, in Cambridge, England. This highly recognized conference is one of the key platforms for scientific players in the field of polymerases worldwide. This year’s main topic was “DNA Polymerases: Biology, Diseases and Biomedical Applications”, discussing the discovery of new DNA polymerases and their potential biotechnological applications mainly in the NGS market.

The presentation of a newly introduced thermostable polymerase characterized and produced by SYGNIS, found in the thermophilic bacteria Thermus thermophilus (Tth), was clearly in the focus of attention at the conference. In a contributing talk Dr. Ángel Picher, PrimPol Project Manager at SYGNIS, highlighted TthPrimPol as an emerging new enzyme for the amplification of DNA. Moreover, when combined with SYGNIS’ proprietary Phi29 DNA polymerase, TthPrimPol’s exceptional ability to synthesize its own DNA primers allows for the amplification of various genomic DNAs without adding any synthetic random primers. Outstanding results in terms of DNA amplification yields, fidelity and amplification coverage support the strong advantage of using this new procedure of DNA amplification mediated by TthPrimPol. This brand new amplification technology is patent-protected by SYGNIS until 2033.

Pilar de la Huerta, CEO and CFO of SYGNIS, commented: “We are very proud and excited about the strong scientific interest and attention paid to our introduction of the next generation of polymerases for DNA amplification. The Company is currently developing a complete range of DNA amplification kits based on PrimPol plus Phi29 DNA polymerases. We are convinced that the outstanding advantages of the combined enzymes compared to current kits in the market will open numerous novel applications in the fields of DNA amplification, especially in molecular biology, next generation sequencing and single cell whole genome amplification (WGA).”

In addition, one of the plenary talks during the conference was also based on PrimPol. Professor Luis Blanco (Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Madrid, Spain), Scientific Advisor to SYGNIS described the key features of the human version of the PrimPol family, recently discovered and characterized in his laboratory.

About PrimPol

PrimPol is one of the most innovative discoveries in the molecular biology field and one of the key products in SYGNIS AG’s portfolio. Key features of this enzyme are its duality as a DNA primase and DNA polymerase, and its high tolerance to damaged DNA. The primase function of PrimPol allows to start reading and copying DNA without the need for providing random primers, as required by all other commercially available polymerases. Using random primers can bias the sequencing and amplification results. The polymerase function of PrimPol displays a high specific activity, being very efficient also when copying DNA with different lesions.

About SYGNIS AG: www.sygnis.com

After the merger in 2012 between X-Pol Biotech, specializing in DNA amplification and sequencing, and SYGNIS AG, listed in the German Stock Exchange (Prime Standard segment, Tick: LIO1; ISIN: DE000A1RFM03), SYGNIS’ new mission is to develop and distribute technologies and products from X-Pol, which has a commercial product in the DNA amplification segment, SensiPhi® and is currently developing other products in the field of Next Generation Sequencing.

For further information please contact:

SYGNIS AG
Pilar de la Huerta
CEO/CFO
Tel: +34 91 192 36 50
Email: pdelahuerta@sygnis.es

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