DNA Electronics has entered a partnership with 454 Life Sciences, a Roche company, to develop a low-cost, high-throughput, long-read, high-density DNA sequencing system.
As part of the agreement, DNA Electronics has signed a non-exclusive licence to provide relevant IP from its proprietary semiconductor technology portfolio to Roche.
This technology, which enables sensitive detection of nucleotide incorporation during sequencing, will build on 454 Life Sciences' current pyrosequencing-based platform.
The collaboration leverages DNA Electronics' knowledge of semiconductor design and expertise in pH-mediated detection of nucleotide insertions with 454 Life Sciences' long-read sequencing chemistry to produce a seamless evolution from optical detection to low-cost, highly scalable electrochemical detection - the companies claim.
DNA Electronics' technology utilises completely electronic methods for semiconductor-based detection of DNA nucleotide incorporations via pH changes.
The pH change is generated when two complementary nucleotides bind together and protons are released in the process, which switches on an ion-sensitive semiconductor field effect transistor (ISFET), allowing real-time DNA sequencing and analysis.
This electronic DNA detection technology is said to overcome the limitations of traditional optical detection technologies that depend on labels and have exacting manufacturing demands.
The collaboration is claimed to be a pivotal step to realising routine human genome sequencing that can identify mutations and structural variations within hours.
