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Hercules, CA — July 9, 2013 — Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. today announced the launch of its PrimePCR™ assays for Droplet Digital™ PCR. These new predesigned assays for mutation detection and copy number variation (CNV) have been experimentally validated to provide single-copy PCR resolution without a standard curve.
Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR™) technology provides an absolute measure of target DNA molecules. Researchers can use ddPCR assays to accelerate discovery and enable new research strategies for inherited disorders, cancer, and infectious diseases.
“We are excited because these are the first assays that have been made available as fully validated for digital PCR,” said Richard Kurtz, marketing manager of the Gene Expression Division at Bio-Rad. “These predesigned assays remove the burden of assay design and make digital PCR even easier for our customers.”
In this first release, Bio-Rad offers its customers 14 mutation detection assays with matching wild-type assays for biologically relevant and highly prevalent cancer mutation targets chosen from the COSMIC database. Commonly studied cancer gene mutations such as BRAF V600E and EGFR T790M are among the first set of assays available. The assays, combined with the sensitivity of Bio-Rad’s ddPCR system, are capable of detecting a single mutant copy in a background of 2,000 or more wild-type molecules (0.05% mutation frequency). The precision of ddPCR also enables cancer researchers to discriminate small-fold copy number changes with the 62 assays targeting common cancer genes and two reference target assays now available.
Bio-Rad has partnered with Biogazelle, a qPCR data analysis and services company, and Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), a world-class manufacturer of oligonucleotides, to design, optimize, and experimentally validate the assays. The PrimePCR ddPCR assays employ universal cycling conditions and do not require optimization. Primer specificity has been validated by next-generation sequencing, and all assays have been validated on Bio-Rad’s QX100™ Droplet Digital PCR system.
PrimePCR ddPCR assays are available in multiple reaction sizes.
For more information on Bio-Rad’s PrimePCR products, please visit www.bio-rad.com/PrimePCR.
About Bio-Rad
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: BIO and BIOb) has been at the center of scientific discovery for 60 years, manufacturing and distributing a broad range of products for life science research and clinical diagnostic markets. The company is renowned for its commitment to quality and customer service among university and research institutions, hospitals, public health and commercial laboratories, as well as the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and food safety industries. Founded in 1952, Bio-Rad is based in Hercules, California, and serves more than 100,000 research and industry customers through its global network of operations. The company employs approximately 7,300 people worldwide and had revenues exceeding $2 billion in 2012. Visit us at www.bio-rad.com.
This release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, “believe,” “expect,” “may,” “will,” “intend,” “estimate,” “continue,” or similar expressions or the negative of those terms or expressions. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. For further information regarding the Company’s risks and uncertainties, please refer to the “Risk Factors” in the Company’s public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect an analysis only and speak only as of the date hereof. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
For more information contact:
Richard Kurtz
Bio-Rad
510-741-5638
Richard_Kurtz@bio-rad.com
Ken Li
Chempetitive Group
312-997-2436 x 112
kli@chempetitive.com
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