Agilent Technologies launches new gene sequencing product

Agilent Technologies has introduced a new assay product which allows human genomes to be sequenced in a more precise and efficient way.

The SureSelect Human All Exon v2 Target Enrichment kit has been developed in conjunction with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and lets researchers discard non-relevant areas of the genome, thereby streamlining experiments.

This latest version of the kit is designed to cover the vast majority of human exons, RefSeq genes, RefSeq transcripts and miRNA, as well as offering new expressed genome content and optimised uniformity.

It represents the 15th product in the company's SureSelect range, with Agilent stating that "many more" are currently in development.

Dr Emily LeProust, Agilent's director of genomics application development, expressed confidence that the kit "will continue to be a highly useful research tool for discovery of mutations linked to heritable disease and cancer".

Last week, the company published its financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal year, reporting a 30 per cent increase in revenues year-on-year.