The patent describes a global whole genome amplification methodology using composite DNA/RNA primers able to anneal to multiple sites within the template polynucleotide. The resulting amplified nucleic acid is said to be suitable for use with a wide array of analytical and investigative approaches and applications.
Global whole genome amplification is a new area of focus for NuGEN, which plans to expand its family of products in 2009 to include new solutions and workflows with DNA amplification.
The NuGEN proprietary technology, Spia, has been employed to develop and commercialize the company’s Ovation systems family of 3-prime and whole transcriptome RNA amplification and labeling products.
Nurith Kurn, co-founder and chief scientific officer of NuGEN, said: “This new technology will further enable the use of valuable and precious biological samples to accelerate the understanding of disease pathologies, and target discovery and validation.”