Roche's GS Junior Sequencing System Used in Research on Personalized Tumor Treatment

BRANFORD, Connecticut, January 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

The Center for Human Genetics and Laboratory Medicine Dr. Klein and Dr. Rost, and IMGM Laboratories, both located in Martinsried Germany, reported using the Roche GS Junior Benchtop System to sequence clinically relevant exons and identify genomic variations in solid tumors treated with an antibody-based medicine. This sequencing approach, easily expanded to complete coding regions, has great potential for personalized medicine, where individual treatment success is largely dependent on the mutation status of tumor genes. The high-quality long reads produced by the GS Junior System enable accurate and comprehensive analysis of the full range of genetic variations.

Personalized tumor treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies (mAb) that specifically target tumor-inducing proteins, require a precise and comprehensive assessment of an individual's genetic profile for the targeted genes. Current therapies target only a limited region of the relevant tumor genes, whereas the next-generation GS Junior Sequencing System enables cost effective and comprehensive profiling of all the relevant genes. In contrast, conventional capillary sequencing techniques often lack the sensitivity and cost effectiveness to detect tumor mutations occurring at less than 20% frequency.

"The future of personalized tumor treatment lies in this sequencing approach," said Dr. Hanns-Georg Klein, MD, CEO of both IMGM and the Center for Human Genetics. "Through our research, we've found that it's critical to ensure a comprehensive analysis of a tumor variant population, including known and novel mutations."

These findings underscore the utility of Roche's GS Junior System for investigating complex tumor samples. The long, accurate sequencing reads are ideal for identifying multiple tumor mutations that can include structural variations and rare somatic mutations.

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 2010, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested over 9 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 47.5 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 IMGM Laboratories GmbH

IMGM, one of Europe's leading outsourcing companies, offers advanced genomic services tailored to the needs of customers from pharma, diagnostics, academia, and biotech. IMGM gained wide acceptance for its excellent genome-wide gene expression analyses (microarrays) and focused gene expression studies (quantitative real-time PCR). Expert bioinformatics and understandable reports adding further value to these services. IMGM is accredited according to DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025 with a full accreditation for gene expression analysis based on microarrays and qPCR. For more information on IMGM's service portfolio, please visit http://www.imgm.com.

About the Center for Human Genetics and Laboratory Medicine Dr. Klein and Dr. Rost

The Laboratory Dr. Klein & Dr. Rost in Martinsried near Munich was founded in 1998 as a spin-off from the university hospital Großhadern in Munich. One of the critical factors of success was the professionalization of diagnostic sequencing at a time, when many other still worked with DGGE or DHPLC for mutation search. Today, the facility employs 100 staff including 30 molecular biologists and is the number 1 in diagnostic sequencing in Germany. The laboratory holds an accrediation according to ISO 15189 and 17025 and the European Federation of Immungenetics (EFI) and was the first to be accredited for array analyses in Germany. The service portfolio covers the entire range of genetics including molecular and cytogenetics, pharmacogenetics, immunogenetics, reproduction genetics and molecular oncology. Further information is available at http://www.medical-genetics.de.

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

454, 454 Sequencing, 454 LIFE SCIENCES, GS FLX and GS JUNIOR 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: +1-203-871-2300
Email: katie.montgomery@roche.com