Menarini-Silicon, Swift Biosciences NGS Collaboration

Menarini-Silicon Biosystems Inc., a developer and manufacturer of technologies and products that help uncover the biological complexities of dis¬ease at the single-cell level, and Swift Biosciences, Inc., a developer of innovative technologies for sample preparation for next-generation sequencing (NGS), today announced their collaboration to offer customized NGS products for oncology research and diagnostics. Marketed by Menarini-Silicon Biosystems, the first two products developed for tumor cells from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples allow users to obtain high-quality, NGS results from 100 to 300 tumor and stromal cells in an optimized workflow downstream of Menarini-Silicon Biosystems’ DEPArray™ cell sorting platform.

“We are excited to continue our technology collaboration with Swift Biosciences to offer our cus¬tomers reliable solutions for the genetic analysis of cells derived from FFPE tissue samples,” said Giuseppe Giorgini, CEO of Menarini-Silicon Biosystems. “This new offering integrates two premier technologies, our DEPArray cell sorting System and Swift Biosciences’ Accel-NGSâ 2S and Accel-Ampliconsä, to provide simple, complete and optimized workflows for high-quality genetic results of FFPE tumor cells.”

Dr. Timothy Harkins, President and CEO of Swift Biosciences, said, “Our partnership with Menarini-Silicon Biosystems shows how complementary technologies and know how can revolutionize oncology research by unlocking the treasure trove of FFPE samples that have been previously unable to be characterized.  Together, we are helping cancer researchers perform whole exome and targeted re-sequencing of pure cell types, and often just using a few hundred cells.”