Applied Biosystems Announces Software Development Initiative for Next-Generation Sequencing
Complete the form below to unlock access to ALL audio articles.
Applied Biosystems has announced an initiative to support life scientists and independent software vendors (ISVs) in the development and potential commercialization of bioinformatics applications for next-generation DNA sequencing platforms.
As part of this initiative, the company is expanding its Software Development Community to include sample data sets, data file formats and data conversion tools for its SOLiD System.
Applied Biosystems expects this initiative to drive innovation and speed up the development of new tools that will enable researchers to find more answers, thereby helping life scientists to realize the full potential of next-generation sequencing.
The promise of next-generation sequencing technology is to broaden the applications of genomic information in medical research and health care, reduce the cost of DNA sequencing without sacrificing quality, and enable discoveries that may revolutionize the practice of medicine.
The Joint Genome Institute (JGI) is an Applied Biosystems early-access collaborator that provides contract sequencing services and develops computational and bioinformatic tools for data management and mining. JGI serves approximately 500 scientists working on a broad range of sequencing projects and provides many of the software applications that they rely on to analyse the data JGI generates on their behalf.
As part of this program, Applied Biosystems has dedicated resources to create and support a community of bioinformatics experts that it expects will advance application development in the many research areas supported by the SOLiD System platform. These include, but are not limited to, whole genome sequencing; chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP); microbial sequencing; gene expression; microRNA discovery; digital karyotyping; epigenetic profiling; and detection of rare genetic variants. Applications such as these have been identified by prospective customers as being important to driving the early adoption of next-generation sequencing.
“Collaboration with our early-access customers and bioinformatics experts has given us ample opportunity to clearly define what is required to help them to successfully develop the software applications that will ensure their success in conducting next-generation sequencing projects,” said Kimberlee S Caple, vice president and general manager for Applied Biosystems’ next-generation sequencing business unit. “Application-specific software is crucial in building the bridge from the quality data generated by the SOLiD System to new insights that will advance biomedical research by broadening the use of genomic information.”
The SOLiD System, based on sequencing by oligonucleotide ligation and detection, is Applied Biosystems’ next-generation system for ultra-high throughput DNA analysis. Currently in use by early-access customers, the SOLiD System will be commercially available beginning in October.
