Life Technologies Corporation announced the launch of its next-generation, high throughput genotypic MicroSEQ® Rapid Microbial Identification System for the identification of bacteria and fungi within a pharmaceutical manufacturing environment. Powered by the new 3500 Series Genetic Analyzer, this new system offers enhanced throughput, ease-of-use features while maintaining the accuracy required by the pharmaceutical industry to rapidly identify microbial contaminations.
Contaminant analysis is important because harmful bacteria and fungi can contaminate product, raw materials and production facilities. Environmental monitoring is an important step in the detection and identification of microbial contamination in pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, which may result in shutdowns, costly delays, or reduced productivity. Currently, regulatory guidelines include a monitoring program for bacteria and fungi in production facilities. Many microbiologists believe that genotypic methods deliver more accurate and precise results than traditional biochemical and phenotypic techniques. First introduced to the Pharma industry in 2004, the MicroSEQ Microbial Identification System is based on genotypic-based identifications, today’s gold standard in identification of bacteria and fungi. "DNA-based amplification and sequencing results are faster, more sensitive, more accurate and more reproducible than current microbiological methods," said Dr. Robert Johnson, Director of Dialogue in Switzerland.
The new MicroSEQ Rapid Microbial Identification System is designed to increase efficiency in set-up, run-time and maintenance scheduling while sustaining the high level of accuracy enjoyed by current users. Reduced sample preparation steps, plug-and-play consumables, higher capacity instrumentation and user-friendly software help enable up to a 20% reduction in process-run time. The system’s libraries include more than 3,000 fully validated bacterial and fungal species, currently the life science industry’s largest and most comprehensive collection. Additionally, the system’s accuracy can deliver a measurable financial impact through the reduction in the amount of re-testing, or outsourcing of identifications for hard-to-identify microbial contaminants.
It is this continued commitment to providing leading-edge technology that has MicroSEQ placed at many of the top pharmaceutical companies worldwide. "The MicroSEQ ID system is the standard for microbial identifications in pharma today due to its accuracy and throughput," said Tony Hunt, General Manager of Pharma Analytics at Life Technologies. "With the introduction of MicroSEQ Rapid, we continue to address the needs of microbiologists in product quality and safety testing."