ZS Genetics has entered into a strategic collaboration with Hitachi High Technologies America (HTA), to develop and commercialise its new single molecule DNA sequencing platform.
It is expected that the high-resolution electron microscopy (EM) will enable the sequencing of high-quality long reads (50,000+ base-pairs) of single DNA molecules.
ZS Genetics chief executive officer John McCarthy said: “The technical capabilities of our two companies are expected to produce a DNA sequencing platform capable of enabling unique scientific discovery, as well as offering a powerful tool to complement and broaden current short-read sequencing technologies.
"Combining ZS Genetics’ proprietary long-read technologies with HTA's leadership in high-resolution EM is expected to accelerate the introduction of this important technology into leading scientific institutions.”
Later this year, ZS Genetics intends to initiate an early-access centre in its Wakefield, Massachusetts facility for product and application development in collaboration with select customer and supply-chain partners.
HTA Nanotechnology Systems Division vice-president and general manager Phil Bryson said: “We are confident that HTA’s decades-long leadership in high-resolution EM for highly complex applications in R&D and industry can translate readily into this powerful and important new application for the life sciences industry.”
ZS Genetics' DNA sequencing technology platform combines high-resolution electron microscopy with DNA sample preparation to generate long-read high-quality, single-molecule DNA sequence information.
The platform is expected to allow scientific discovery across the complex diseases, expedite the discovery and complement the existing short-read DNA sequencing technologies.
