Solexa is commercialising a next-generation sequencing technology which has the potential to produce 100-fold more bases per run, at less than 1% the cost, than conventional technologies
Solexa has reached an agreement with New England Biolabs (NEB), a supplier of enzymes and technologies to the life science market, for NEB to provide Solexa with certain key enzymes and other reagents for use with the Solexa genome analysis system.
NEB will also manufacture Solexa's proprietary sequencing-by-synthesis polymerase.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
With systems already installed at leading institutes, Solexa is commercialising a next-generation sequencing technology which has the potential to produce 100-fold more bases per run, at less than 1% the cost, than conventional technologies.
The Solexa Genome Analysis System will enable researchers to tackle a broad range of applications including whole-genome and candidate region sequencing, digital expression profiling, and small RNA discovery and analysis.
"Striking strategic partnerships with leading life science companies has been a critical component of our strategy for commercial-scale manufacture of reagents and enzymes," stated Brock Siegel, chief operating officer of Solexa.
"In New England Biolabs we have found a partner whose scientific and manufacturing capabilities and reputation are well established and unsurpassed.
"With this agreement in place, we and our customers can be confident that enzymes critical to our process, including proprietary Solexa enzymes, will be supplied by a world class-company known for its expertise in this domain".
For 30 years, NEB's reagents have set the standard for quality and value, fulfilling the needs of scientists from the individual researcher through to the OEM market.
NEB's OEM partners benefit from its ability to combine R+D and manufacturing expertise for reagent optimisation, customisation and platform integration.
"Having a strong relationship with a leader in next-generation sequencing technologies is of great value to NEB, allowing us to contribute to an area which has the potential to change both biological research and the practice of human medicine," stated Fiona Stewart, business development manager at New England Biolabs.
"We are very pleased that our expertise in enzyme technology and reagent manufacturing has been recognized by Solexa."
