MOgene, LC, a leading NimbleGen Service provider based in St. Louis, MO, has announced the signing of an agreement with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to provide services using the Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array (LLMDA).
The technology of the LLMDA, which includes probes for more than 3,000 bacterial and viral species, has been optimized for NimbleGen arrays. The Livermore-developed array provides rapid and comprehensive analysis of bacteria or viruses from biological material of unknown nature.
This capability has been shown to be very useful in food and pharmaceutical safety, detection of viral and bacterial infections, and animal health, as well as many other applications.
"We signed an agreement with LLNL for the potential it offers to our existing customers and because it allows us to expand into new areas for our microarray and sequencing service business," said Shaukat Rangwala, senior vice-president of MOgene.
The LLMDA could enable food safety professionals, law enforcement, medical professionals and others to detect within 24 hours any virus or bacteria that has been sequenced and included among the array's probes. It detects viruses and bacteria with the use of 388,000 probes that fit in a checkerboard pattern in the middle of a one-inch wide, three-inch long glass slide.
One advantage of the LLMDA is that it provides researchers with the capability of detecting pathogens over the entire range of known viruses and bacteria. Current multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques can at most offer detection from among 50 organisms in one test.
MOgene has been in the genomics service business since 2004 and has worked with many pharmaceutical and agricultural businesses, along with universities, around the world.
"We believe that adding this technology to our offerings brings added value to our existing and new customers," Rangwala concluded.
About MOgene, LC MOgene is a leading global genomics service provider located in St. Louis, Missouri. MOgene offers a full range of genomic services from RNA/DNA isolation, microarrays, real-time PCR, NGS to complete analysis. The company is a long time Agilent-certified and NimbleGen service provider for gene expression, CGH, ChIP, miRNA and methylation microarrays. In the area of bioinformatics, the company works with its customers to provide customized solutions and publication-ready analysis.
About LLNL Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory that develops science and engineering technology and provides innovative solutions to our nation's most important challenges. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.