SAN DIEGO and HERCULES, Calif. — January 9, 2017 — Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) and Bio‑Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: BIO)(NYSE: BIOb) today announced the launch of the Illumina® Bio-Rad® Single-Cell Sequencing Solution at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, San Francisco. The comprehensive solution is the first next-generation sequencing (NGS) workflow for single-cell analysis, providing researchers the ability to investigate the coordinated contribution of individual cells in tissue function, disease progression, and therapeutic response.
Single-cell analysis enables a deep view into the gene expression of individual cells to understand their functions in complex tissues. The solution delivers high-throughput sequencing of thousands of individual cells, traditionally a challenging, costly, and time consuming process. Human development and disease research, fields in which single-cell sequencing is widely applicable, is expected to benefit most from this new offering.
“Single-cell genomics provides the opportunity to look at stem cells turning into neurons that are lost in diseases like Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) with much higher accuracy,” said Clive Svendsen, PhD, Director, Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute in Los Angeles. His laboratory tested the application of the new platform to profile single cells used in modeling neurodegenerative diseases.
“Using the solution made it possible to detect single cells in a population that was maturing faster than others, allowing us to produce better models of disease,” added Ritchie Ho, PhD, Project Scientist in the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute and lead researcher for the testing.
The solution comprises the ddSEQ™ Single-Cell Isolator and SureCell™ WTA 3′ Library Prep Kit. Bio-Rad’s best-in-class droplet partitioning technology, Droplet Digital™ technology, is used to isolate and barcode single cells for downstream sequencing on many of Illumina’s leading NGS instruments. The comprehensive workflow solution includes primary and secondary data analysis conducted via the BaseSpace® Informatics Suite, Illumina’s cloud-based genomics computing environment, and tertiary data analysis and visualization with SeqGeq™ from FlowJo, LLC, the market leader in flow cytometry analysis.
“Through our close collaboration with Illumina we developed a seamless and scalable solution for single-cell analysis,” said Annette Tumolo, Bio-Rad Executive Vice President and General Manager, Digital Biology Group. “We are proud to equip cell biologists and others in the research community with the tools they need to power new discovery.”
“By offering cell biologists access to technologies that make single-cell analysis cost effective and easy to adopt, we hope to enable scientists to advance complex disease research using gene expression insights,” said Rob Brainin, Vice President and General Manager, Applied Genomics at Illumina. “Our collaboration with Bio-Rad has allowed us to bring this technology to market quickly and empower our customers to unlock the power of the genome to improve human health.” The Illumina® Bio-Rad® Single-Cell Sequencing Solution will begin shipping in early February. For more information about the instruments, reagents, and workflow, visit www.bio-rad.com/ddSEQ.
About Illumina
Illumina is improving human health by unlocking the power of the genome. Our focus on innovation has established us as the global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, serving customers in the research, clinical and applied markets. Our products are used for applications in the life sciences, oncology, reproductive health, agriculture, and other emerging segments. To learn more, visit www.illumina.com and follow @illumina.
About Bio-Rad
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: BIO) (BIOb) develops, manufactures, and markets a broad range of innovative products and solutions for the life science research and clinical diagnostic markets. The company is renowned for its commitment to quality and customer service among university and research institutions, hospitals, public health and commercial laboratories, as well as the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and food safety industries. Founded in 1952, Bio-Rad is based in Hercules, California, and serves more than 100,000 research and healthcare industry customers through its global network of operations. The company employs more than 8,000 people worldwide and had revenues exceeding $2 billion in 2015. For more information, please visit www.bio-rad.com.
Illumina Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, such as Illumina’s expectations regarding the launch of any products. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include the application of generally accepted accounting principles, which are highly complex and involve many subjective assumptions, estimates, and judgments, and the other factors detailed in Illumina’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, or in information disclosed in public conference calls, the date and time of which are released beforehand. Illumina assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date of this release.
Bio-Rad Forward-Looking Statements
This release may be deemed to contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements we make regarding plans to introduce new products and the opportunities that may result from such new products. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “plan”, “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “may,” “will,” “intend,” “estimate,” “continue,” or similar expressions or the negative of those terms or expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include our ability to develop and market new or improved products, our ability to compete effectively, international legal and regulatory risks, and product quality and liability issues. For further information regarding our risks and uncertainties, please refer to the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation” in Bio-Rad’s public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Bio-Rad cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect an analysis only and speak only as of the date hereof. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
Press Contacts:
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.
Tina Cuccia, Corporate Communications
510-724-7000
tina_cuccia@bio-rad.com
llumina, Inc.
Investors:
Rebecca Chambers
858-255-5243
rchambers@illumina.com
(or)
Media:
Gwen Gordon
858-882-6822
pr@illumina.com