Pacific Biosciences, a private company developing a disruptive technology platform for real-time detection of biological events at single molecule resolution, has launched a partner program designed to work with organizations providing complementary solutions to its Single Molecule Real Time (SMRT) DNA sequencing system.
To support a whole product solution with the commercial launch of the SMRT system in the second half of 2010, Pacific Biosciences has developed a formal partner program designed for companies providing consumables, automation systems, complementary instrumentation, services, and supporting software and hardware.
The eleven initial members of the program are: Agilent Technologies; Amazon Web Services; BioTeam; Caliper Life Sciences; CLC bio; Fluidigm; GenoLogics; GenomeQuest; Geospiza; NuGEN Technologies; RainDance Technologies.
The program is expected to help customers to adopt its third-generation DNA sequencing solution into their discovery programs. Pacific Biosciences said that members of the partner program will receive access to information and development tools, APIs, protocols, and potential co-marketing opportunities depending on the specific terms of the partnership. In some cases, the company will engage in co-development agreements to bring complementary solutions to market.
Hugh Martin, chairman and CEO of Pacific Biosciences, said: “We have thought carefully about what it takes to successfully introduce a new generation of technology to the marketplace, and putting in place an entire ecosystem of complementary solutions has been one of our strategies from the beginning. The overwhelming response from companies wanting to partner with us is extremely validating as we stand on the verge of introducing a breakthrough technology to redefine DNA sequencing. We look forward to continuing to champion collaboration in the industry.”
Chris Grimley, senior director of genomics marketing at Agilent, said: “This is a dynamic field, and we’re pleased to work with innovators like PacBio. We look forward to working together to develop new scientific applications that will benefit tremendously from the introduction of PacBio’s third-generation DNA sequencing technology and the efficiencies enabled by our targeted sequencing platform.”
Rob Arnold, president of Geospiza, said: “Pacific Biosciences is changing the game with the real-time streaming of its sequencing data and the granularity in which it is delivered. This revolution is an ideal match for a cloud-based computing service and we look forward to working with PacBio to meet the informatics needs associated with this new era of DNA sequencing technology.”