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Illumina acquires Epicentre Biotechnologies
February 2011
SHARING OPTIONS:
SAN DIEGO—Seeking to enhance its sample preparation and
enzyme portfolio, Illumina Inc. announced Jan. 11 that it has acquired
Epicentre Biotechnologies, a provider of nucleic acid sample
preparation
reagents and specialty enzymes used in sequencing and
microarray applications.
According to
Illumina, the company was attracted by the
prospect of having direct access to Epicentre's Nextera technology for
next-generation sequencing library
preparation, which Illumina says "greatly
simplifies genetic analysis workflows and reduces time from sample preparation
to answer." Nextera,
Illumina says, will enable researchers to prepare
sequencer-ready libraries from genomic DNA with less than 15 minutes of
hands-on time, representing
significant timesaving compared to alternate
methods. In addition, Nextera technology requires 10 to 100 times less starting
DNA, which enables
applications with limited starting material such as tumor
biopsies, degraded DNA or purified RNA, according to Illumina.
These features are critical to advancing the evolution of
next-generation sequencing, said Illumina President and CEO Jay Flatley in a
statement.
"Epicentre's Nextera technology provides a step-change
improvement in library
prep that will translate into greater ease of use, lower
costs and faster turnaround times for sequencing applications," Flatley added.
"In addition
to Nextera, Epicentre is a leading supplier of specialty enzymes
and kits that are beneficial to Illumina's technologies."
Specifically, the combined company will be able to offer an
end-to-end solution for next-generation sequencing,
microarray and real time
PCR applications, Illumina says.
Founded in 1987, Epicentre has R&D and manufacturing
facilities in Madison,
Wis. The company's kits and reagents for DNA and RNA
sequencing, gene expression analysis, DNA and RNA purification, PCR and RT-PCR,
cloning, in-
vitro transcription and
microbial genomics are used worldwide by academic, commercial, and government
laboratories in diverse applications,
including basic research, drug discovery,
cancer research, infectious disease research, microbiology and personalized
medicine.
Commenting on the acquisition, analyst Deutsche Bank raised
its price target to $77 from $75, adding, "the firm believes that the company
is in a dominant market position in
the high-growth genetic analysis markets."
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