BGI Installs Roche GS FLX+ System to Enhance Long Read Sequencing Capabilities for Genome and Transcriptome Research

BRANFORD, Connecticut and SHENZHEN, China, May 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

BGI, one of the world's largest genomics organizations, announced today that a new Roche GS FLX+ System has been successfully installed at its facility in Shenzhen, China. The goal is to complement the existing array of short read sequencing technologies and enhance BGI's long read sequencing capability.

The GS FLX+ System, developed by 454 Life Sciences, a Roche Company, features the unique combination of long reads, exceptional accuracy and high-throughput, making the system well suited for larger genome projects. "We're excited that BGI has implemented our GS FLX+ System in their Shenzhen facility," said Thomas Schinecker, President of 454 Life Sciences. "This again demonstrates the continued importance of the GS FLX+ platform and its utility as a powerful replacement for Sanger sequencing applications."

"We are very pleased to have Roche's GS FLX+ System," said, Meifang Tang, Director of NGS Department at BGI, "So far, the system has been operated successfully with a stable performance. We can achieve the read lengths up to 1000 bp reads in our laboratory. With the implement of this system, we hope assemblies will be greatly improved with fewer gaps, longer contigs and scaffolds in de novo genomics and transcriptomic research."

Roche and BGI have been working closely together over the years. They have made great collaborative efforts to develop methodologies and tools to assist scientists pursuing genomics research. Last November, Roche NimbleGen, Inc. and BGI developed a Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) region capture technology that will help advance research and development of new medicines for human diseases. "In the future, I hope we can cooperate even more closely, and make more breakthroughs in life science," added Tang.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche's personalized healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2011, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested over 8 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 42.5 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: http://www.roche.com.

About BGI

BGI was founded in Beijing, China, in 1999 with the mission to become a premier scientific partner for the global research community. The goal of BGI is to make leading-edge genomic science highly accessible, which it achieves through its investment in infrastructure, leveraging the best available technology, economies of scale, and expert bioinformatics resources. BGI, and its affiliates, BGI Americas, headquartered in Cambridge, MA, and BGI Europe, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, have established partnerships and collaborations with leading academic and government research institutions as well as global biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, supporting a variety of disease, agricultural, environmental, and related applications.

BGI has a proven track record of excellence, delivering results with high efficiency and accuracy for innovative, high-profile research: research that has generated over 170 publications in top-tier journals such as Nature and Science. BGI's many accomplishments include: sequencing one percent of the human genome for the International Human Genome Project, contributing 10 percent to the International Human HapMap Project, carrying out research to combat SARS and German deadly E. coli, playing a key role in the Sino-British Chicken Genome Project, and completing the sequence of the rice genome, the silkworm genome, the first Asian diploid genome, the potato genome, and, more recently, have sequenced the human Gut Metagenome, and a significant proportion of the genomes for the 1000 Genomes Project.  For more information about BGI, please visit http://www.genomics.cn

For life science research only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

454, 454 LIFE SCIENCES, 454 SEQUENCING, GS FLX and NIMBLEGEN are trademarks of Roche.

All other product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For further information please contact:

Roche Diagnostics
Dr. Burkhard Ziebolz
Phone: +49 8856 604830
Email: burkhard.ziebolz@roche.com


454 Life Sciences Corporation, a Roche Company
Katie Montgomery
Phone: 203-871-2300
Email: katie.montgomery@roche.com

BGI
Bicheng Yang,
Public Communication Officer
+86-755-82639701
yangbicheng@genomics.cn