Roche´s NimbleGen Sequence Capture Arrays and xCELLigence Cell Analysis System Are Among the Ten Top Innovative Products of 2008 in China

PENZBERG, Germany–The Roche NimbleGen Sequence Capture Array and Roche`s xCELLigence RTCA Instrument are among the ten most innovative products in the 2008 Top Ten Innovative Product Award in China. Co-organized by Ebiotrade (www.ebiotrade.com), a successful biotechnology and business-to-business portal in China, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI; www.cnki.net), a key national e-publishing project, the competition aims to recognize some of the best and brightest breakthroughs in life sciences in 2008. The ten awardees were selected by the scientific community out of 24 candidates nominated by the editorial members of Ebiotrade and scientific experts.

The award acknowledged the Roche NimbleGen Sequence Capture Array as the world’s first high-performance array for targeted genomic enrichment and a novel tool that greatly simplifies the sample preparation process required for genomic sequencing. In addition to the array, Roche’s xCELLigence System also achieved top ten status. The cell-based assay system that perfectly integrates micro electronics and cell biology is suitable for uninterrupted monitoring of processes in living cells and for monitoring real-time kinetics.

Manfred Baier, Head of Roche Applied Science remarked that “this award symbolizes not only the technological potential of NimbleGen Sequence Capture arrays and the xCELLigence system, but also the broad acceptance of these products and recognition in the research community around the world. Since its release in the first quarter of 2008, NimbleGen Sequence Capture technology has quickly become the next-generation technology of choice for researchers to cost-effectively optimize DNA sequencing processes. And the design of the xCELLigence`s electronic sensor, innovative techniques to collect and assess data and optimised instrumentation make the system a unique platform for cell-based assays and provide a benchmark potential for cellular and molecular biology.”

Technology Background

In order to provide the genetic information to facilitate breakthroughs in personalized healthcare and improve human life, it is necessary to understand the genetic variants behind complex diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer. Targeted resequencing of disease associated regions in many individuals holds the great promise to identify the common and rare variants that contribute to such diseases. One major bottleneck for targeted resequencing is to specifically enrich DNA from target regions of the genome in preparation for high throughput sequencing. NimbleGen Sequence Capture is an innovative technology that utilizes custom oligonucleotide arrays as a hybridization-based capture device to enrich these genomic regions. Currently, Roche NimbleGen offers 385K feature arrays that capture up to 5Mb genomic regions, as well as 2.1 million feature arrays that capture the whole human exome. The ultimate flexibility and high density inherent in the NimbleGen platform, combined with the empirically optimized and validated capture designs, have resulted in the industry-leading Sequence Capture genomic enrichment microarray technology.

The heart of each xCELLigence System is a micro-electronic biosensor which is built into each well of the standard 96 well E Plate microtiter plates. A cell which has contact with the sensor changes the electrical impedance between the microelectrodes. Each change in the cell’s status – for example, changes in cell adhesion, cytotoxicity, cell proliferation, cell – cell interactions and morphological changes – leads to changes in the impedance measurements and can therefore be easily and quickly detected in real time. Labelling of the cells, which can induce non-physiological changes in the cells, is not necessary. The system is label free and requires no reporters.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche’s personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients.

In 2008, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested almost 9 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 45.6 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche.com.

NIMBLEGEN is a trademark of Roche.