Molecular Loop Acquires MIP-Based DNA Targeting Technology

BOSTON, October 16, 2018 (Newswire.com) - Molecular Loop Biosolutions LLC, a company specializing in advanced sample preparation solutions and data analysis for next-generation DNA sequencing, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Good Start Genetics’ molecular inversion probe-based DNA targeting and analysis technology from Invitae Corporation.

The intellectual property portfolio acquired from Invitae covers the full NGS sample workflow and is designed to produce high-quality variant and copy number calls from genomic DNA via a robust yet simple process that is significantly more streamlined than conventional approaches.

Greg Porreca, PhD, Molecular Loop’s founder and CEO, said “the company’s patented technology was developed over many years at Good Start Genetics,” a Cambridge-based clinical laboratory he co-founded nearly a decade ago to bring NGS into mainstream medical practice. Originally designed to enable high-accuracy, ultra high-throughput targeted sequencing in a production setting, the technology “can accelerate large research projects in academia and pharma and enable commercial production facilities to elegantly achieve a level of scale that is difficult and cumbersome with other technologies,” Porreca said.

Eric Boyden, PhD, Molecular Loop’s Head of Research and Development, added that the company’s approach “is so much simpler” than hybrid capture technologies but functions at a higher throughput than PCR amplification. The MIP-based approach combines a highly optimized tiling probe design that is robust to allele dropout with a wide range of other innovations including automated chemistry on industry-standard liquid handling robotics, UMI-enabled error correction, sample multiplexing resistant to index-swapping, and sophisticated cloud-based variant and CNV detection. The result is a remarkably user-friendly yet clinical-grade end-to-end workflow.

“We look forward to bringing this powerful technology to market,” Porreca said, adding that the company is currently welcoming inquiries from both large and small groups that are eager to become early adopters.

Media Contact:

Greg Porreca, Molecular Loop

[email protected]

Source: Molecular Loop Biosolutions LLC