New York Genome Center purchases four Ion Proton Sequencers for cancer research

Life Technologies has announced that the New York Genome Center (NYGC) has purchased four Ion Proton Sequencers for its new Innovation Center. The sequencers, which are designed to sequence an entire human genome in a few hours for under $1000, will be housed at IFM Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and used to accelerate its research on the genetic mechanisms of cancer.

The Ion Proton Sequencer is a complementary platform to the Ion PGM Sequencer, said to be the fastest selling benchtop sequencer with the largest benchtop next-generation sequencing install base in laboratories worldwide. The Ion PGM System is claimed to be the fastest solution to sequence sets of genes, small genomes and small RNA. The new Ion Proton System will deliver rapid, inexpensive sequencing to scientists focused on understanding the function of exomes, transcriptomes and human-scale genomes.

“The Innovation Center is a critical component of the NYGC’s growth strategy and we are pleased to be collaborating on it with Life Technologies, a company that shares our commitment to technology advancement,” said Nancy J Kelley, Founding Executive Director of NYGC. “The Ion Proton Sequencer will enable our network of world-renowned scientists to remain on the leading edge of research and participate in sequencing-based collaborative studies focused on advancing the era of genomic medicine.”

“We are extremely excited to be the first site for NYGC’s Innovation Center, through which we are gaining access to this technology,” said Thomas J Kelly, MD, PhD, Director, Sloan-Kettering Institute. “We believe the system will greatly accelerate the rate at which we can collect information about the molecular changes in DNA that give rise to diseases such as cancer, enabling us to better exploit this information to develop more effective therapeutic strategies in the future.”

Biologist Dr Scott W Lowe, a member in the Cancer Biology & Genetics Program at the Sloan-Kettering Institute and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, is studying difficult-to-treat cancers, including acute myeloid leukemia and hepatocellular carcinoma. Dr Lowe said he believes the technology will enable his team to more quickly examine the genetic changes, or mutations, which occur in these difficult-to-treat cancers, understand how these mutations influence response to therapy and, in the future, identify cancer-specific therapeutic targets.

“We are pleased that the New York Genome Center has joined a growing list of prestigious, research-focused hospitals and institutions around the world that are rapidly adopting our ion semiconductor sequencing technology,” said Mark Stevenson, President and Chief Operating Officer of Life Technologies. “Like our other partners, we believe the NYGC will benefit from this disruptive technology by being able to quickly generate accurate genomic data and apply it to human disease research.”