Rubicon Genomics, Inc. Announces Distribution Agreement With Beckman Coulter Life Sciences For Its ThruPLEX Plasma-Seq Kits

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Rubicon Genomics, Inc. today announced a new agreement with Beckman Coulter Life Sciences for distribution of its ThruPLEX^® Plasma-seq kits for research applications. ThruPLEX Plasma-seq prepares DNA next-generation sequencing (NGS) libraries for the analysis of cell-free DNA circulating in plasma. The non-exclusive agreement covers the U.S. and Canada. It follows an announcement last fall that the ThruPLEX Plasma-seq kit has been automated for use with Beckman Coulter’s Biomek FX^P Automated Workstation, a leading automated liquid handling solution for laboratories worldwide. Further details of the agreements were not disclosed.

Rubicon also announced that Rubicon’s co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, John Langmore, PhD, will discuss ThruPLEX Plasma-seq and other Rubicon DNA library technologies at the Advances in Genome Biology & Technology (AGBT) afternoon poster session on February 12, 2016. Rubicon is sponsoring the poster session and will award an Apple iWatch by raffle to a meeting attendee.

Rubicon CEO James Koziarz, PhD, commented, “The explosion in research interest in analyzing cancer mutations using easily accessible plasma samples is making our ThruPLEX Plasma-seq kit one of our most successful product launches to date. We view Beckman Coulter, whose products are used in both life science and diagnostics, as an excellent distribution partner for this important enabling technology. The agreement is especially welcome since it expands our existing automation collaboration and allows more researchers access to the technology, including those who are conducting smaller scale studies and those who require the automated solutions that are essential for large-scale genomics research.”

“We are pleased to offer the ThruPLEX Plasma-seq library preparation kits to help increase the feasibility and quality of non-invasive cancer genomics studies,” said Demaris Mills, Vice President and General Manager for Genomics and Automation, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences. “This kit complements our existing portfolio of nucleic acid extraction and purification kits built on our patented Solid Phase Reversible Immobilization (SPRI) technology, as well as our Biomek Automated Workstations.”

ThruPLEX Plasma-seq kits enable liquid biopsies for research applications in cancer and other conditions by producing highly reproducible libraries for Illumina^® instruments from small amounts of cell-free DNA in plasma (from less than 1 ng up to 30 ng of cell-free DNA.) Its optimized repair and ligation chemistries and a modified protocol provide high library diversity at low input amounts with broad and consistent GC (guanine-cytosine) coverage. ThruPLEX Plasma-seq libraries are suitable for whole genome, whole exome and targeted gene sequencing. The performance of the ThruPLEX Plasma-seq kit has been validated by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Cancer Research UK (CRUK) in Cambridge, UK.

Dr. Langmore will discuss “Detection of Rare Alleles in cfDNA using libraries prepared with ThruPLEX^® Plasma-seq” during the AGBT afternoon poster session, 4:45pm-6:45pm on Feb. 12, 2016. The AGBT General Meeting is being held February 10-13, 2016 in Orlando, FL.

For more information on Rubicon products, visit http://rubicongenomics.com/products/kit-selection-guide-2/

About Beckman Coulter Life Sciences
Beckman Coulter Life Sciences is dedicated to improving the health of people around the world. The company’s global leadership and world-class service and support delivers sophisticated instrument systems, reagents and services to life science researchers in academic and commercial laboratories, enabling new discoveries in biology-based research and development. A leader in automation, centrifugation and flow cytometry, Beckman Coulter has long been an innovator in capillary electrophoresis, particle characterization and laboratory automation, and its products are used at the forefront of important areas of investigation, including genomics and proteomics. For more information, please visit ls.beckmanr.com. Follow Beckman Coulter Life Sciences on Twitter @BCILifeSciences and LinkedIn.

About Rubicon Genomics
Rubicon Genomics develops innovative, high quality, nucleic acid library preparation and companion products for research applications that enable easy, reliable, and highly sensitive analysis of samples. Rubicon is committed to teamwork and continuous improvement to provide excellence to our customers, shareholders, and employees. Privately-held Rubicon is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For more information, visit rubicongenomics.com.

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SOURCE Rubicon Genomics, Inc.