TriLink BioTechnologies (TriLink), a leader in manufacturing high quality oligonucleotides, nucleoside triphosphates and mRNA, has been awarded patents in the US (8,728,725), Europe (EP 2451980) and New Zealand (597535) for their novel ligation technology. The patent, entitled Chemically Modified Ligase Cofactors, Donors, and Acceptors, is directed toward the use of modified ligation components to improve fidelity in nucleic acid ligation. The research was funded in part by the NIH through the Small Business Innovation Research program.

TriLink’s ligation method provides a strategy to improve the discrimination between matched and mismatched targets through chemical modification to the nucleic acid components of the reaction, such as the donor probe, the acceptor probe and the ATP cofactor. This technology also significantly reduces adapter dimer formation while allowing the end user to utilize the same or similar ligation protocols and methods already in use.

“This novel technology enables several different and completely new approaches for improving the fidelity of ligation reactions for SNP or mutation detection, and for greatly suppressing template independent ligation,” said Dr. Gerald Zon, TriLink’s Director of Business Development.

“We are proud of the outcome of this research”, stated TriLink's president and
chief executive officer, Richard Hogrefe, Ph.D. “TriLink has been a leader in the utilization of nucleic acid chemistry to solve molecular biology problems – first with our CleanAmp line of modified NTPs and primers and now with our novel ligation chemistry.”