Raindance Technologies has announced the shipment of an RDT 1000 and sequence enrichment solution to the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).
TGen focuses on the translation of laboratory discoveries into personalised medicine, developing earlier diagnostics and better treatments for patients with many forms of cancer, neurological and cardiovascular diseases, and infectious diseases.
The Raindance solution consists of the RDT 1000 instrument, consumables kits, and custom PCR primer libraries.
The solution uses Raindance's Rainstorm microdroplet-based technology platform.
The simplicity and speed of the technology are designed to maximise the efficiency of next-generation DNA sequencing workflows.
The RDT 1000 generates picolitre-volume PCR reactions at the rate of 10 million discrete reactions per hour.
High-speed sample processing is further enhanced by the fact that the sequence enrichment solution uses a library of PCR primers in droplets, enabling the amplification of hundreds to thousands of genomic loci in a single tube.
The technology leverages the specificity of PCR to provide high breadth of coverage for the regions of interest.
The Rainstorm format avoids the limitations of traditional multiplex hybridisation and amplification technologies.
Raindance's solution minimises process-induced bias or error and requires only a few micrograms of genomic DNA.
Dr David Duggan, an investigator in TGen's genetic basis of human disease division, said one of the initial applications of the Raindance solution would focus on re-sequencing regions of the human genome identified as part of genome-wide association studies.
He added that the organisation was also discussing its use in candidate gene and pathways studies, as well as targeting known disease-causing genes.
Dr Jeffrey Trent, TGen's president and research director, said the use of Raindance products should further improve the speed and quality of TGen's scientific investigations.
He added: 'TGen should significantly reduce the time required to conduct experiments by exponentially accelerating multiple applications for genome-level partitioning, including the generation of large amounts of targeted re-sequencing data.'
