OBBeC.com

San Diego, CA (OBBeC) - Illumina today announced that the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) has purchased four additional Genome Analyzers taking its installed base to six. According to the company, the Genome Analyzers will be used in a variety of projects, including the construction of transcriptional networks linked to cancer and stem cells.

Dr. Ruan Yijun, Associate Director of Genome Technology at GIS said, "The Genome Analyzer is robust and versatile. We will use it across a broad array of applications including construction of transcriptional networks through identifying transcription factor interactions and chromatin modifications in stem cells and cancer cells, characterization of genome and transcriptome variations in healthy and patient samples, and discovery of new pathogens through metagenomic sequencing. This expansion of our sequencing capacity is necessary for us to deliver high impact discoveries through our innovative PET sequencing platform."

PET, or the Pair-End-diTag technology, is a new approach developed by researchers at GIS to study genome structures and functions. In October 2007, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded GIS US$3M grants to further advance the PET technology for human genome annotation and to identify complete fusion genes that function as oncogenes, or cancer-causing genes.

"The PET sequencing strategy that we pioneered integrates seamlessly with Illumina's Genome Analyzer. Using the system's paired-end reads capacity, we have successfully established our ultra high throughput PET-based analyses for comprehensive characterization of transcriptome and chromatin structures," said by Dr. Wei, Chia-Lin, the senior group leader of Genome Technology and Biology at GIS.