NEW YORK—New York Genome Center (NYGC) has announced thelaunch of its Innovation Center, a new facility that will provide access to newsequencing technologies and encourage collaboration amongst NYGC'sInstitutional Founding Members (IFM) and technology collaborators. Theorganization has signed an agreement with Life Technologies, under which the firsttechnology to be adopted at the Innovation Center will be Life Technologies'Ion Proton Sequencer, which is capable of sequencing a human genome in a matterof hours for less than $1,000. Four sequencers will be utilized at IFM MemorialSloan-Kettering Cancer Center, making NYGC and IFM researchers the first totest-drive the Ion Proton.
"We are extremely excited to be the first site for NYGC'sInnovation Center, through which we are gaining access to this technology,"Thomas J. Kelly, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Sloan-Kettering Institute, saidin a press release. "We believe the system will greatly accelerate the rate atwhich we can collect information about the molecular changes in DNA that giverise to diseases such as cancer, enabling us to better exploit this informationto develop more effective therapeutic strategies in the future."
The NYGC has set aside capital and operating budgets for itsnew center for the purchase of next-generation sequencing technology, whichwill allow its scientists to test and publish on the technologies. An NYGClaboratory located at The Rockefeller University will house some of theInnovation Center's sequencing and data analysis until the facility's doorsofficially open next year.
"We believe the adoption of technologies and ultimately theadvancement of science and medicine is about building connections and this iswhat NYGC is trying to do," Nancy J. Kelley, JD, MPP, founding executivedirector of the NYGC, said in a press release. "The NYGC Innovation Center isserving as a broker of relationships to bring new technologies forward, ofwhich Life Technologies' Ion Proton Sequencer is the first."
Mark Stevenson, president and chief operating officer ofLife Technologies, said that the company wants industry leading institutions tobe able to access their technology, and add that the company is "pleased thatthe New York Genome Center has joined a growing list of prestigious,research-focused hospitals and institutions around the world that are rapidlyadopting our Ion semiconductor sequencing technology."
"Like our other customers, we believe NYGC will benefit fromthis disruptive technology by being able to rapidly generate accurate genomicdata quickly and apply it to human disease research," said Stevenson in a pressrelease.
Scott Lowe, Ph.D, a biologist, member of the Cancer Biology& Genetics Program at Sloan-Kettering Institute and a Howard Hughes MedicalInstitute Investigator, studies a variety of cancers that are difficult totreat, and noted that he expects the technology will grant his team the abilityto more quickly examine genetics mutations that take place in the cancers,understand how said mutations affect a patient's response to therapy andidentify cancer-specific targets.
SOURCE: NYGC press release
