Cambridge, Massachusetts – GnuBIO, Inc. (GnuBIO), www.gnubio.com a pioneer in the Desktop DNA sequencing market, announced today that it has achieved a significant milestone in the field of clinical genetics – the shipment of its first beta system, the world’s first fully-integrated DNA sequencing system.

The GnuBIO sequencing system is the world’s first DNA sequencer designed with the clinic in mind, resulting in a system that provides a “Sample In, Answer Out” solution. The GnuBIOsequencer is the size of a desktop computer, and requires neither any additional sample preparation equipment nor informatics clusters, thus taking into consideration the small footprint required by the majority of clinical laboratories. By simply injecting patient DNA into the cartridge, loading the cartridge, and pressing the “Go” button, the user will have results in 3.5 hours, thereby obviating the need for well trained molecular biologists and informatics professionals to run the system.

The performance of the system has been unparalleled, as the company has sequenced hundreds of targets with quality scores consistently above Q50. While the system is flexible enough to easily develop and produce custom gene panels, GnuBIO has worked with leaders in the field of clinical oncology and has developed a standard oncology panel that is able to detect allele frequencies below 1% across hundreds of targets.

“With the assay performance as robust as it is, the first phase of the beta program is to understand and customize the data flow and software control to meet the needs of the clinic,” stated John Healy, Vice President of Informatics at GnuBIO. “We will work very closely with our early clinical collaborators to create an informatics pipeline and software template that encapsulates the needs of the majority of the clinical market,” Healy continued.

“One of the most overlooked, but yet most important, aspects of clinical DNA sequencing is the data flow and informatics analysis”, stated John Boyce, President and CEO of GnuBIO. “By taking the time to work closely with the clinical genetics community through our beta program, we will provide an informatics pipeline that integrates seamlessly with the current reporting needs of the clinic,” Boyce continued.

About GnuBIO

GnuBIO, Inc. (www.gnubio.com) is a private company and a pioneer in the field of scalable DNA sequencing technology for the Diagnostic and Applied Markets.

Unlike other sequencing instruments or “workflows” that require many days of sample preparation, or require large upfront expensive robotics, the GnuBIO system is the size of desktop computer and provides a fully-integrated solution. The researcher or clinician simply injects the patient genomic DNA into a cartridge with no need for target enrichment or library preparation, loads the cartridge into the instrument, hits the “Go” button, and in 3.5 hours receives the analyzed sequence of the gene panel including variant calls and quality scores. Both the small footprint of the system, as well as the price of $50,000 USD all in – no additional equipment or large robotics to purchase – will ensure rapid adoption of the GnuBIO solution.

The cartridge allows a clinician to run one sample at a time at a low per patient cost, thereby obviating the need to batch samples.