Rubicon Genomics Adds Global Distributors

Rubicon Genomics, Inc., has signed agreements with new distributors in Europe, North Africa and Asia to further expand the availability of its DNA library preparation products for arrays and Illumina® next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms, including ThruPLEX® DNA-seq, PicoPLEXTM DNA-seq, and PicoPLEX WGA Kits.  Separately, Rubicon announced that Karl Hecker, PhD, has joined the company as Vice President of Product Development.

Rubicon’s new distributors include CliniSciences in France, Spain and North Africa; Nerliens Meszansky AS in Norway; Shanghai Nanodigmnio Biotechnology Co., Ltd, in China; and GeneLabs Life Science in Taiwan.

James Koziarz, PhD, CEO of Rubicon Genomics, commented, “Our strategy of expanding our global network of distributors is working well–product sales of our DNA library prep kits are up more than 50% in the first nine months of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013.  As we improve our current product line and prepare to launch new products, we are delighted to have recruited Karl Hecker to lead those efforts.  Karl has a strong record of achievement in developing successful new products at industry leaders including Invitrogen and PerkinElmer.”

Dr. Hecker brings the Rubicon management team more than 15 years of life sciences and diagnostics product development expertise and over 25 years’ experience in chemistry and molecular biology.  At Invitrogen, he commercialized approximately 60 nucleic acid purification and isolation products in a three-year period.  At PerkinElmer, Dr. Hecker increased new product introduction output four-fold while reducing cycle times by 50%.  He also held R&D and product development roles at Transgenomic, Quidel and HTG Molecular Diagnostics.  Dr. Hecker holds a PhD in biochemistry from Florida State University and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. He completed post- graduate studies at Florida State and Harvard Medical School.

During the third quarter, Rubicon increased the multiplexing options for its ThruPLEX DNA-seq technology with the launch of kits containing 12- or 48- Illumina-compatible single indexes. The single index kits complement the 48- and 96-dual index kits launched in June, which enable scientists to use ThruPLEX DNA-seq for high throughput applications while also improving sensitivity and reproducibility.

ThruPLEX DNA-seq works with as little as 50 picograms of DNA and is especially efficient for challenging specimens, such as cell free DNA from plasma. The entire workflow is performed in a single tube or well in about two hours and requires no purification steps or sample transfers. ThruPLEX DNA-seq produces uniform coverage and improves molecular complexity, yielding highly reproducible sequencing results. ThruPLEX DNA-seq can be used in any DNA-seq, RNA-seq, or ChIP-seq application and provides robust performance with leading enrichment technologies.

PicoPLEX WGA Kits and PicoPLEX DNA-seq Kits are widely recognized as providing the most accurate and reproducible single-cell assays for aneuploidy and CNV determination. The product has helped to revolutionize the IVF market for pre-implantation genetic screening using Illumina arrays and sequencing platforms.  PicoPLEX’s patented technology is optimized for amplification of genomic DNA with input concentrations of less than six picograms.  The easy-to-use single tube protocol reduces handling errors and background while dramatically improving time to results.