Rubicon Genomics Inc., a company develops innovative, high quality, nucleic acid library preparation and companion products, announced an agreement with Eurofins Genomics for US distribution of its DNA library preparation products, including the ThruPLEX DNA-seq kit and Rubicon’s new ThruPLEX Plasma-seq kit.

ThruPLEX Plasma-seq has been optimised for cell-free DNA to enable the preparation of NGS libraries for liquid biopsies–the analysis of cell-free circulating DNA in plasma for diagnostic and prognostic applications in cancer and other conditions. Eurofins Scientific is a world leader in bioanalytical and genomics testing and also sells selected bioanalytical products to its large customer base in the US and worldwide.

Liquid biopsies can eliminate the need for invasive and costly tissue biopsies to detect biomarkers and other genetic mutations in tumours. They are expected to transform cancer screening, diagnostics and treatment and to replace many prenatal amniocentesis procedures. ThruPLEX Plasma-seq kits enable liquid biopsies by producing highly reproducible next-generation sequencing (NGS) libraries from small amounts of cell-free DNA in plasma, enabling accurate and informative results from samples that might otherwise be difficult or impossible to analyse.

“The initial response to the launch of our ThruPLEX Plasma-seq kits has been gratifying, and we are delighted to be partnering with Eurofins Genomics to increase customer access to our suite of leading DNA library preparation kits, including this important new product,” said James Koziarz, PhD, CEO of Rubicon Genomics.

“Eurofins is a global leader in bioanalytical testing, and the company selectively distributes high quality products to its customers for use in their own laboratories. We view their decision to distribute our kits as another confirmation of the value of our enabling technologies.”

ThruPLEX Plasma-seq libraries are suitable for whole genome, whole exome and targeted gene sequencing. The performance of the ThruPLEX Plasma-seq kit has been validated by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Cancer Research UK (CRUK). ThruPLEX Plasma-seq can now be easily automated for high throughput applications on Beckman Coulter’s Biomek FXP Liquid Handling Workstation, a leading automated solution for laboratories worldwide.

ThruPLEX DNA-seq works with as little as 50 picograms of DNA and is especially efficient for challenging specimens. The entire workflow is performed in a single tube or well in about two hours and requires no purification steps or sample transfers. ThruPLEX DNA-seq produces uniform coverage and improves molecular complexity, yielding highly reproducible sequencing results.

Martin Kunz, CEO of Eurofins Genomics, noted, “Rubicon library prep kits complement our existing products. We are pleased at the opportunity to offer these unique kits that facilitate many types of genomic analyses to our large and diverse US customer base.”

Rubicon scientists will present “Fast, Reproducible NGS Library Preparation from Cell-Free DNA Liquid Biopsies with ThruPLEX Plasma-seq Kit,” at the AMP corporate workshop scheduled on November 4, 2015 at the 2015 Association of Molecular Pathology (AMP) annual meeting in Austin.