Companies claim technology avoids drawbacks of multiplex amplification or hybridization capture methods.

Genomic services specialist SeqWright inked a deal with RainDance Technologies that will allow it to offer the latter’s RainStorm™ microdroplet-based PCR platform. SeqWright claims the sequence-enrichment application will enhance its targeted resequencing and whole-genome sequencing capabilities.

“Microdroplet-based PCR is the new gold standard for sequence enrichment and allows for the performance of faster, more accurate DNA sequencing with high-resolution analysis, a focus area of SeqWright’s customers,” suggests Christopher McNary, RainDance chief commercial officer.

RainDance’s flagship RainStorm technology product is the RDT 1000, designed to allow users to amplify hundreds to thousands of genomic loci with high specificity and uniformity, the firm claims. The RainStorm approach generates picoliter-volume droplets at a rate of 10 million per hour, with each droplet essentially representing the functional equivalent of an individual test tube. The droplets, each containing a single molecule, reaction, or cell, are then processed on a disposable chip that has no moving parts or valves, and samples have minimal contact with either walls or air.

The firm says this microdroplet technology avoids the limitations of traditional multiplex amplification or hybridization capture methods and will be useful in a range of biomedical applications including genomics research, gene-expression analysis, compound screening, and biomarker detection.

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