The collaboration will help characterize rare mutations that would otherwise prove difficult or impossible to identify using alternative methods, the two companies said.
The companies are sponsoring a program to work directly with leading cancer researchers to define a panel of high-priority genomic targets in order to facilitate large-scale targeted resequencing studies of cancer samples.
The program will provide polymerase chain reaction primer design for genes and loci specified by study participants using the RainDance primer library design service; enrichment of target loci performed on the RainDance RDT 1000 by Expression Analysis as well as sequencing of the enriched loci also by Expression Analysis on the Illumina Genome Analyzer; and data analysis including mapping and single-nucleotide polymorphism detection.
Steve McPhail, president and CEO of Expression Analysis, said: “Our collaboration with RainDance Technologies will enable us to provide targeted resequencing for areas of the genome thought to be involved in disease processes, thereby providing the research community with tools to accelerate the pace of cancer research.”