FREMONT, Calif., March 26, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WaferGen Bio-systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:WGBS) announced today an important industrial partnership with Procter & Gamble whereby Procter & Gamble will utilize WaferGen's SmartChip MyDesign™ quantitative PCR System to conduct various gene expression and other studies.
As the amount of genomics data increases with the use of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and microarrays, the need for high-throughput target validation becomes more acute. WaferGen's SmartChip platform offers two products that enhance these efforts, SmartChip MyDesign™ for qPCR and SmartChip TE™ for NGS sample preparation.
"We are very pleased that, following a thorough evaluation of multiple technologies, Procter & Gamble has selected our SmartChip MyDesign™ System for use in a number of gene expression and other studies," said Dr. Ivan Trifunovich, President and CEO of WaferGen. "We believe our technology is superior to other products in a number of applications, including gene expression assays. The adoption of WaferGen's technology by a major industrial company, such as Procter & Gamble, further underscores the critical advantages of our SmartChip solution. The platform's key features for customers are its flexible configurations, and the ability to efficiently dispense assays in the customers' own labs.
Relative to competitive offerings, WaferGen believes that the SmartChip MyDesign™ System has best-in-class flexibility, high levels of sensitivity without the need for pre-amplification and a very low cost per reaction. WaferGen previously announced successful proof-of-concept studies utilizing their SmartChip technology for single cell analysis, and intends to offer an Early Access Program in the second quarter of 2015, followed by a commercial product launch before the end of 2015. The single cell offering will provide an important broadening of the platform's utility, with integrated workflows into NGS and quantitative PCR.
About WaferGen
WaferGen Bio-systems, Inc. is a life science company that offers innovative genomic solutions for clinical testing and research. The SmartChip MyDesign™ Real-Time PCR System is a high-throughput genetic analysis platform for profiling and validating molecular biomarkers via microRNA and mRNA gene expression profiling, as well as single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping. The SmartChip TE™ System is a novel product offering for target enrichment geared towards clinical Next-Gen sequencing (NGS). The Seq-Ready™ TE System, powered by SmartChip massively-parallel singleplex PCR technology, is an innovative one-step target enrichment and library preparation solution. The Company now also offers the Apollo 324™ product line used in library preparation for NGS. These three complementary technologies offer a powerful set of tools enabling more accurate, faster and cheaper genetic analysis based on Next-Gen Sequencing and Real-Time PCR.
For additional information, please see http://www.wafergen.com.
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