ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 13 — Rubicon Genomics, Inc. today announced an agreement with SAIC-Frederick to amplify DNA samples for The Cancer Atlas Genome Project. Rubicon Genomics was selected to amplify and standardize total genomic DNA from 3,000 tissue and blood samples from cancer patients. The Rubicon GenomePlex(TM) Whole Genome Amplification technology was judged best to amplify clinical DNA samples to the constant concentration and quality necessary for reproducible and accurate analysis using microarrays and PCR. The amplified DNA libraries will be deposited into the International Genomics Consortium Biospecimen Research Core as a renewable resource to be shared among international researchers to completely characterize the genomes of patients with three types of cancer. Their studies will help understand the causes of cancer, as well as how to detect and treat the diseases. “This agreement is an important technical validation for GenomePlex,” said Dr. John Langmore, vice-president of commercial development for Rubicon. “IGC-BRC collaborators were able to show that pre-amplification of patient DNA can increase the sensitivity, reproducibility and robustness of analysis of patient samples using major analytical instruments.” Rubicon provides custom GenomePlex services for major pharmaceutical, diagnostic and institutional customers in order to increase the clinical performance of genetic analysis instruments. GenomePlex kits are also available from Rubicon for diagnostic applications. GenomePlex not only makes analysis of routine frozen tissue more reproducible, but enables difficult clinical samples such as single cells, plasma, serum and formalin-fixed tissue to be analyzed by PCR, microarrays and next-gen sequencing. Furthermore, GenomePlex allows investigators and clinicians to test for multiple analytes from a single small sample, producing more information from clinical samples.