SURVEYOR® Measures Up For IDT
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Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) recently announced the acquisition of the SURVEYOR® enzyme business of Transgenomic, Inc. The agreement with Transgenomic sees IDT acquire the SURVEYOR product line and intellectual property with Transgenomic receiving an exclusive license for clinical and diagnostic use of SURVEYOR products from IDT.
To learn more about the acquisition and the benefits it provides IDT and their customers, we spoke to Nicola Brookman-Amissah, PhD, Corporate Communications Specialist at IDT.
AB: Can you tell me more about the SURVEYOR product line?
Nicola Brookman-Amissah (NB-A): SURVEYOR® Mutation Detection Kits provide a simple and robust method to detect mutations and polymorphisms in DNA. The key component of the kits is SURVEYOR Nuclease, a member of the CEL family of mismatch-specific nucleases derived from celery. SURVEYOR Nuclease recognizes and cleaves mismatches arising from the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or small insertions or deletions.
AB: What are key features of the SURVEYOR product line that made acquisition so attractive?
(NB-A): SURVEYOR Mutation Detection has emerged as the method of choice for verifying the outcome of genome editing by zinc finger nucleases, TALENs, CRISPR/Cas9 systems, and other emergent technologies. These technologies are being investigated for use in genome repair. The most recent of the technologies, involving clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) and CRISPR-associated (Cas) systems, which occur naturally in lower organisms, is being manipulated to provide a flexible, specific, and relatively easy means of modifying mammalian genomes. In this rapidly growing field of research, scientists are developing CRISPR/Cas9 systems for clinical use, with the hope that millions of people can finally be cured of genetic disease.
AB: What does this acquisition enable?
(NB-A): IDT will now be able to develop and commercialize further applications of SURVEYOR Nuclease based on customers’ and our internal use of the product.
AB: How does this complement your existing product line?
(NB-A): We are the largest custom nucleic acid manufacturer in the world, providing the highest quality products in the shortest time at the most competitive prices. Nucleic acid modifying enzymes are a natural extension to our existing product line, and we can now offer this product to our customers with the speed, quality, and service for which we are known.
AB: How will the acquisition benefit IDT’s customers?
(NB-A): Many of our customers who perform genome editing use our popular gBlocks® Gene Fragments to generate the guide RNA of the CRISPR/Cas9 system. By supplying SURVEYOR products, IDT can now offer the means to verify the success of these genome editing experiments. We plan to integrate SURVEYOR Nuclease into our product portfolio and offer further application-specific solutions using the technology.
For more information, please visit www.idtdna.com.
Nicola Brookman-Amissah was speaking to Ashley Board, Managing Editor for Technology Networks. You can find Ashley on Google+ and follow Technology Networks on Twitter.
