Winners of Sequencer Grants Program Announced

Life Technologies Corporation has announced Dr Angel Carracedo and Dr Mark Pallen as the winners of the European Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine (PGMTM) Sequencer Grants Program. Each scientist will receive an Ion PGM which will give their labs sequencing capabilities on a level prevalent in large, core sequencing centers. Ion Torrent has also awarded three runners-up an Ion PGM sequencer to support their exceptional proposals. Dr Carracedo, Director of the Galician Foundation of Genomic Medicine in Spain, was awarded the grant for his proposal to create a fast and affordable method for genetic screening of research samples from newborns. “Up to now newborn genetic screening efforts have been limited by high cost, slow run times and limited throughput of existing sequencing technology,” said Carracedo. “Our research will be focused on developing a newborn screening based on Ion amplicon sequencing for Cistic fibrosis, Wilson disease, Hurles-Scheie disease and other congenital metabolic diseases.” Dr Pallen, Professor of Microbial Genomics at the University of Birmingham, was awarded the grant for his proposal to identify, profile and type the healthcare associated bacterial pathogens in hospital environments. “The excessive run times and high costs of previous sequencing methods have severely limited the real-time use of sequencing in environmental microbiology settings,” said Pallen. “The Ion PGM is already an order of magnitude cheaper and quicker with a performance enabled by years of compounded Moore’s law. The ability to deliver cheap same-day results is essential to enable timely interventions in outbreak management.”