By Kevin Davies
February 16, 2010 | Pacific Biosciences (PacBio), the next-generation sequencing company that intends to release the first version of its single molecule DNA sequencing instrument later this year, has announced a partner program featuring eleven leading technology providers. The Bay Area company believes that this program will help its future customers quickly adopt what it is calling a “third-generation” DNA sequencing solution into their research.
PacBio’s Chairman and CEO Hugh Martin said it has been a long-standing priority to establish “an entire ecosystem of complementary solutions.” In a statement, he said: “The overwhelming response from companies wanting to partner with us is extremely validating as we stand on the verge of introducing a breakthrough technology to redefine DNA sequencing.”
Members of the partner program, headlined by Amazon and featuring a spectrum of software, informatics, target-enrichment and sample prep providers (see below), will receive access to information and development tools, APIs, protocols, and potential co-marketing opportunities.
One segment not included in the program, at least for now, is the IT hardware/data storage community, but several members, including BioTeam, GenoLogics and Geospiza, serve as expert liaisons with the IT community. “PacBio has received immense interest from direct IT and storage providers that we will evaluate as the partner program matures,” said Edwin Hauw, PacBio’s senior product manager, software & informatics.
“We’re really excited,” said BioTeam managing partner Stan Gloss. “We think we provide a unique perspective to help PacBio integrate into existing environments and work with other systems that are already in place. I see our role as a system integrator and solutions architect, bringing together existing high-throughput sequence platforms, storage, HPC, and cloud technologies.”
Gloss added: “PacBio is trying to do something special here. This is all about building an ecosystem to support the platform.”
“Pacific Biosciences is changing the game with the real-time streaming of its sequencing data,” commented Geospiza president Rob Arnold. “This revolution is an ideal match for a cloud-based computing service and we look forward to working with PacBio to meet the informatics needs associated with this new era of DNA sequencing technology.”
CLC bio’s global head of PR and marketing, Lasse Goerlitz, said his company’s core strategy was to be an independent, cross-platform software provider, supporting all second-generation sequencers and now the emergence of 3rd generation sequencers. “We are very happy that we have been chosen as the first and presently only high-throughput sequencing data analysis software provider in Pacific Biosciences’ partner program,” he said. “We’re very excited about the prospects that single molecule real time sequencing brings.”
The full list of the eleven founding members of the PacBio program is as follows:
• Agilent Technologies – Provider of the SureSelect Target Enrichment System
• Amazon Web Services – Cloud computing, provider of the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)
• BioTeam – IT/informatics consultants with expertise in high-performance and cloud computing, storage, wiki media and DNA sequencing platforms
• Caliper Life Sciences – Tools and services for drug discovery/life sciences, including the LabChip XT fractionation technology
• CLC bio – Bioinformatics and sequencing analysis solutions, including CLC Genomics Workbench and CLC Genomics Server
• Fluidigm – Microfluidics solutions, such as the Fluidigm Access Array System for targeted enrichment
• GenoLogics – Informatics solutions for life sciences, including Geneus, a next-gen sequencing LIMS and data management system
• GenomeQuest – Sequence data management (SDM), provider of the GenomeQuest SDM platform and cloud services
• Geospiza – Cloud computing solutions for genetic analysis, such as the GeneSifter Lab and Analysis products
• NuGEN Technologies – Sample preparation, provider of the Ovation whole genome amplification, whole transcriptome amplification, and RNA-Seq kits
• RainDance Technologies – Microdroplet-based solutions for single-molecule and single- cell analysis, provider of the RDT 1000 system and sequence enrichment kits
PacBio has announced that the commercial launch of its first sequencing instrument will take place in the second half of 2010. The company says its SMRT Sequencing System will ultimately make it possible to sequence individual genomes as part of routine medical care, but the platform will enable many other applications in agriculture, clean energy, and global health.
Ed. Note: BioTeam contributes the regular “Inside the Box” column in Bio-IT World.