Covaris Introduces microTUBE™ LV for Ultra-Low Volume DNA Shearing

WOBURN, Massachusetts, Aug. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Covaris, Inc. announced the introduction of the patent-pending microTUBE LV, its latest product designed for low volume, high performance DNA Shearing for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) applications. The Covaris microTUBE LV allows researchers to process samples as small as 15 microliters using Adaptive Focused Acoustics (AFA™) which has become the "gold standard" in genome research and clinical centers worldwide.

"Molecular Diagnostic assays are rapidly evolving, requiring better sensitivity, higher throughput and new sample preparation solutions for processing challenging clinical samples," said Jim Laugharn, Covaris CEO. "We are excited to expand our NGS sample preparation portfolio with a microTUBE LV, dedicated to ultra-low volume DNA shearing."

The microTUBE LV incorporates newly developed AFA Beads, also from Covaris, Inc., which have unique surface properties. These beads enable fully controllable and reproducible DNA shearing from very low sample volumes and at low acoustic power settings in a fast, one-step workflow. The 2D barcodes on each microTUBE LV provide individual sample tracking.

As with all its NGS products, Covaris, Inc. has validated DNA shearing protocols using the microTUBE LV, allowing users to select fragment sizes in the range of 150bp to 1500bp. DNA fragmentation is accomplished in a fast, one-step workflow, making it a perfect fit for high sensitivity clinical applications. Shearing using AFA beads in the microTUBE LV provides robust, reproducible results without introducing fragment bias, thereby leading to high quality NGS library preparation, less expensive sequencing, and more effective data interpretation.

About Covaris, Inc.
Founded in 1998, Covaris is a privately held company headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts, USA. The company is built upon a deep knowledge of fields ranging from acoustic physics and mechanical engineering to biophysics and molecular biology. Considered the leader in focused acoustic technologies for the life sciences industry, Covaris holds over 50 patents granted and pending. Covaris provides tools and technologies to improve pre-analytical sample preparation, enable novel drug formulations, and manage compounds in the drug discovery process. The technological foundation of the company is based on its proprietary and patented AFA™ technology. AFA enables a vast array of non-contact, isothermal processes to be developed for use in a broad range of applications in Genomics, Proteomics, Cell Biology, and Drug Discovery and Formulation. Covaris products are in use in over 30 countries and customers include the world's leading research institutions and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Covaris continues to innovate pre-analytical sample preparation technologies to help accelerate the pace of research and drug discovery. For more information, visit www.covarisinc.com.