Largest European commercial sequencing platform at GATC - GATC offers sequencing with new 454 technology

GATC is now offering genome sequencing using the new sequencing technology of 454 Life Sciences. This makes GATC the largest commercial sequencing service provider in Europe with a total capacity of more than 15.6 giga bases per year.

Only by combining the traditional Sanger technology with the new 454 technology, can genomes now be sequenced and analysed in half the usual project time, with a considerable reduction in the number of contigs and gaps. In addition, considerable cost advantages now makes genome sequencing with the 454 technology accessible to the research community. The new technology can also be employed for many other applications, e.g. for sequencing of whole transcriptomes in a single run or for in-depth mutation analysis of rare mutations at much lower costs.

"We believe that the 454 technology is an important step towards a new era of DNA sequencing. We are very excited to be the first service provider in Europe who offers considerable time and cost advantages to the customers by integrating this innovative technology and combining it with the traditional Sanger method," says Peter Pohl, CEO of GATC Biotech AG.