NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New York Genome Center (NYGC) today announced the launch of its Innovation Center, which will provide access to new sequencing technologies and foster collaboration among NYGC’s Institutional Founding Members (IFMs) and technology collaborators. Under an agreement with Life Technologies, the first technology the Innovation Center is adopting is the Ion Proton™ Sequencer, which is designed to sequence an entire human genome in just a few hours for under $1,000. Four Ion Protons™ will be housed at IFM Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
NYGC and IFM scientists will be among the first laboratories to receive and validate the Ion Proton™, a new “next-next generation” sequencing technology, prior to its expected commercial release. The four Ion Protons are scheduled to be delivered to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, however all data from the results of the technology validation will be shared among the IFMs.
“We believe the adoption of technologies and ultimately the advancement of science and medicine is about building connections and this is what NYGC is trying to do. The NYGC Innovation Center is serving as a broker of relationships to bring new technologies forward, of which Life Technologies’ Ion Proton™ Sequencer is the first,” said Nancy J. Kelley, JD, MPP, Founding Executive Director of the New York Genome Center.
Life Technologies wants leading institutions to have access to their new technologies and to be part of the innovation. “We are pleased that the New York Genome Center has joined a growing list of prestigious, research-focused hospitals, and institutions around the world that are rapidly adopting our Ion semiconductor sequencing technology,” said Mark Stevenson, President and Chief Operating Officer of Life Technologies. “Like our other customers, we believe NYGC will benefit from this disruptive technology by being able to rapidly generate accurate genomic data quickly and apply it to human disease research.”
“We are extremely excited to be the first site for NYGC’s Innovation Center, through which we are gaining access to this technology,” said Thomas J. Kelly, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Sloan-Kettering Institute. “We believe the system will greatly accelerate the rate at which we can collect information about the molecular changes in DNA that give rise to diseases such as cancer, enabling us to better exploit this information to develop more effective therapeutic strategies in the future.”
Biologist Scott W. Lowe, Ph.D, member in the Cancer Biology & Genetics Program at Sloan-Kettering Institute and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, is studying difficult-to-treat cancers, including acute myeloid leukemia and hepatocellular carcinoma. Dr. Lowe said he believes the technology will enable his team to more quickly examine the genetic changes, or mutations, which occur in these lethal cancers, understand how these mutations influence response to therapy, and identify cancer-specific therapeutic targets.
“We look forward to the initial findings from Dr. Lowe’s research, but also to the findings that emerge from our fellow IFMs through the collaborative nature of NYGC’s Innovation Center,” said Dr. Kelly.
The NYGC has allocated capital and operational budgets to its Innovation Center to fund purchases of “next-next generation” sequencing technology, which will allow NYGC and IFM scientists to test and publish on these technologies. This “lab-within-a-lab” will provide the latest technologies to IFMs while minimizing cost and risk, create a vibrant community of users that will help shape future sequencing technologies and applications, and establish thought leadership through early publications.
A pilot NYGC laboratory at The Rockefeller University is expected to house some of the Innovation Center sequencing and data analysis until NYGC officially opens its door at 101 Avenue of the Americas in 2013.
About the New York Genome Center
Founded in August 2010, NYGC is an independent non-profit that magnifies the expertise and resources of world-class universities, medical centers, technology partners, pharmaceutical companies, and private philanthropists that are engaged in a cooperative effort to transform medical research and clinical care. NYGC’s Institutional Founding Members include: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Columbia University, Cornell University/Weill Cornell Medical College, The Jackson Laboratory, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Mount Sinai Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York University/NYU School of Medicine, North Shore-LIJ Health System, The Rockefeller University, and Stony Brook University. The Hospital for Special Surgery is an Associate Founding Member.
NYGC will serve as a transformational catalyst for the future of science and medicine by creating an intellectually vibrant collaboration among the biomedical and research communities in New York. NYGC intends to become one of the largest genomic facilities in North America, establishing an unprecedented, large-scale collaborative venture in genomic medicine. The NYGC model (1) facilitates adoption of personalized medicine through its Institutional Founding Members that collectively treat millions of patients each year; (2) drives therapeutic and diagnostic product development by connecting technology collaborators and the pharmaceutical industry directly to researchers and clinicians at the front lines of discovery; and (3) accelerates the entire translational process by linking all the stakeholders in information-enabled common projects.
To date, NYGC has raised over $110 million in funds from its Institutional Founding Members; philanthropies such as the Simons Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Bloomberg Philanthropies; and other strategic relationships, including the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the New York City Investment Fund.
Website: www.nygenome.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nygenome
Twitter: @nygenome
About Life Technologies
Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) is a global biotechnology company with customers in more than 160 countries using its innovative solutions to solve some of today’s most difficult scientific challenges. Quality and innovation are accessible to every lab with its reliable and easy-to-use solutions spanning the biological spectrum with more than 50,000 products for agricultural biotechnology, translational research, molecular medicine and diagnostics, stem cell-based therapies, forensics, food safety and animal health. Its systems, reagents and consumables represent some of the most cited brands in scientific research including: Ion Torrent™, Applied Biosystems®, Invitrogen™, GIBCO®, Ambion®, Molecular Probes®, Novex®, and TaqMan®. Life Technologies employs approximately 10,400 people and upholds its ongoing commitment to innovation with more than 4,000 patents and exclusive licenses. LIFE had sales of $3.7 billion in 2011. Visit us at our website: http://www.lifetechnologies.com.