Applied Biosystems is to begin shipment of a genomic analysis platform, the Solid 3 System.
The system delivers a roadmap that will ultimately enable scientists to sequence a human genome for less than USD10,000 (GBP7,000) in 2009.
This advanced genomics system enables life science researchers to sequence entire genomes of all organisms at a much lower cost.
It also expands the menu of applications into gene expression and epigenetic analysis, ultimately allowing customers to move one step closer to mainstream use of genomic data for clinical research and personalised medicine.
The Solid 3 System, with high throughput and accuracy, has generated 40 gigabases of data per sequencing run in Applied Biosystems' research and development laboratories, with an accuracy of 99.94 per cent due to 2-base encoding algorithms.
The system is also achieving 100 base pair read lengths per sequencing run, enabling the platform to be used for metagenomic and de novo applications.
Additionally, the system has demonstrated up to 100 million sequencing tags per run for RNA analysis applications.
The Solid 3 System is using the combined power of Life Technologies to create a suite of integrated, application-focused workflow systems.
These workflows accelerate genomic discovery, characterisation and screening for large-scale genome mapping and disease studies.
In order to understand complex biological processes, researchers need a comprehensive suite of applications to conduct global analysis of cellular networks at all levels.
The Solid 3 System will dramatically improve research performance, throughput, quality and cost across a wide range of applications including epigenomic, transcriptome and genome analysis, driving standardisation on a single platform.
With the Solid 3 System, life science researchers will be able to conduct comprehensive investigations of gene variation, gene expression and gene regulation in tandem, in order to develop a more comprehensive, system-wide view of basic biological function.
By combining these applications with the availability of lower-cost genomic data on the Solid 3 System, life scientists will be able to accelerate disease association and biomarker discovery studies, to improve diagnostics and more effectively manage disease.
The Solid System is widely used around the world in research laboratories, genome centres, and core and contract service facilities, as well as biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Researchers are using Solid technology for a variety of genomics applications, including resequencing for disease studies, transcriptome analysis, de novo sequencing and methylation profiling.
Jesse Gray, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Greenberg Laboratory at Children's Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School, has extensive experience with Solid technology and is upgrading to the Solid 3 System to continue his research involving an in vitro model for neuronal activation.
In one study, the researchers are conducting RNA sequencing to examine how gene expression changes when neurons are activated by potassium depolarisation.
Using the same model, researchers are also using the Solid 3 System to look at protein transcription factors binding to DNA, using chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing.
By combining the two data sets, researchers have been able to uncover aspects of activity-induced gene expression that were previously undetected.
