LGC Invests in US Genomics Laboratory Expansion
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LGC has announced the expansion of its nucleic acid extraction service capacity into North America. The extraction service will complement existing capacity in Berlin and London, and will be delivered from the group’s genomics laboratory in Beverly, MA – north of Boston.
LGC Genomics has substantial experience in the nucleic acid extraction field, offering not only outsourcing options for a global customer base but also reagents and instrumentation for laboratories who wish to run their extraction work in-house. With a range of proprietary Nucleic Acid Extraction technologies, including the sbeadex® and KleargeneTM ranges, along with instruments that enable automation, LGC Genomics is well positioned to support both large and small scale research projects.
The extraction team’s experience and expertise in obtaining nucleic acids from a wide variety of biological matrices including blood, mouse tails, plant seeds and leaves, microbial cultures and forensic samples is a key element of the service. With a strong customer base in the Agricultural biotechnology sector, laboratory staff also have significant experience working in areas of disease research and drug development, and particularly with cohort studies where the efficient extraction of DNA from very large sample numbers followed by genotyping of those samples is critical to the research effort.
Steve Asquith, Head of Global Laboratory Operations said: “We’re really excited to announce this expansion, as the ability to offer combined extraction and genotyping services is increasingly important to many of our customers. DNA extraction is a necessary step before any genotyping work can be undertaken and this added capacity will allow us to provide greater support than ever before to an expanding global customer base - including many multinational research teams. The range of extraction solutions we provide, combined with our applications expertise, sets us apart and our laboratory experts deliver fit-for-purpose solutions that yield DNA of the appropriate quality and quantity for downstream processing. We understand the chemistries we use because most of them were developed by our own R&D teams: we use what we sell and sell what we use, and this has always been key to our portfolio of products and services. And of course once developed, optimized protocols are readily made available to customers for use in their own labs should they desire to do the work themselves”.
The Beverly lab, established in 2011, has been providing genotyping services based on the company’s proprietary KASP genotyping technology, and will begin extraction operations early in 2013. The expanded service capability will enable a more comprehensive genomics project support service for customers in the North American market, enabling full project delivery through a single supplier and significant efficiency gains.
