GATC Biotech first in Europe to use PacBio RS gene sequencer

11 Oct 2010

Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. German gene sequencing service provider GATC Biotech has announced that it has agreed to purchase the PacBio RS platform, a single molecule, real-time (SMRT) gene sequencing technology.

The new PacBio RS will be the fifth sequencing technology for the company. The system is planned for installation in early 2011.

GATC Biotech plans to use the new platform for resolving structural variations, for example in human cancer genomes, and for the detection and confirmation of rare SNPs. In addition, the future application to enable direct sequencing of methylated bases will make the system attractive for regulatory studies, for example for the pharmaceutical or diagnostics industry.

“Pacific Biosciences has chosen GATC Biotech to be our first European service provider because the company is well experienced in applying major sequencing technologies in a broad spectrum of projects and in gearing up new sequencing technologies quickly for lab routines,” commented Terry Pizzie, Vice President, Europe for Pacific Biosciences.

“We are looking forward to offering our customers PacBio’s third-generation sequencing platform and are confident that we will be able to offer the SMRT technology to our customers within a short period of time after successful installation,” adds Thomas Pohl, Chief Technology Officer of GATC Biotech.