BD and Cellular Research announce single-cell sequencing co-marketing agreement

BD has announced a new collaboration with Cellular Research that will see them co-marketing their single-cell sequencing offerings.

The companies will promote the BD FACS single-cell sorting instrumentation and software with Cellular Research's Precise assays, based on Molecular Indexing technology, to offer customers an integrated workflow for measuring both nucleic acid and protein expression in cellular subtypes.

Precise is a highly multiplexed molecular and sample barcoding technology, allowing each transcript in every plated cell to be uniquely barcoded during incorporation into one sequencing library.

With the combined workflow, researchers can individually sort cells into 96 or 384-well Precise encoding plates using the BD FACS instruments and software.

Claude Dartiguelongue, worldwide president for BD Biosciences, said: "The efficiency of identifying and isolating single cells greatly increases the throughput of cells available for transcriptome analysis, creating the potential now within reach of investigators to analyse gene expression targets in many thousands of individual cells."

BD has experienced a strong opening to its 2015 business year and will soon be expanding its capabilities through the acquisition of CareFusion.