Life Technologies' Ion Torrent Breakthrough Award Honors Discoveries and Genomic Research Fueled by Next-Generation Sequencing

CARLSBAD, Calif., Oct. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) today announced the inaugural Ion Torrent™ Breakthrough Award 2013 winner. The winning publication is "Thymus-derived regulatory T cells contribute to tolerance to commensal microbiota," published in the May 2013 edition of Nature. The paper's first author, Ms. Anna Cebula, a graduate student of the Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, Georgia Regents University, was honored during the 2nd annual Ion World 2013 next-generation sequencing conference, held October 21–22 in Boston, prior to the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) conference.

The Ion Torrent Breakthrough Award 2013, sponsored by Ingenuity Systems, Partek Inc., and Thermo Fisher Scientific, honors peer-review publications that use Ion Torrent semiconductor sequencing solutions to drive future discoveries that will help feed, fuel, and heal the world. This year, Ion Torrent™ next-generation sequencing solutions are being cited at a rate of one publication per day in the lab.

"We are extremely proud to honor the growing community of researchers pursuing discoveries and applications with the potential to truly transform the world," said Andy Felton, Ion Torrent's head of product management. "These inspiring research projects demonstrate the breakthroughs that happen when simple, accurate, and rapid sequencing are put to work."

Publications considered for the award included research published in the past year using Ion Torrent™ sequencing solutions across a wide range of areas including cancer, inherited disease, microbial and infectious disease, and aneuploidy assessment in reproductive genetics research. See the full, searchable list of scientific publications at: lifetechnologies.com/ionpublications.

Winning Publication of Ion Torrent Breakthrough Award 2013

The winning publication "Thymus-derived regulatory T cells contribute to tolerance to commensal microbiota" increases our understanding of immune tolerance to commensal microbes, the 'good' bacteria necessary for proper intestinal function, during the dysregulation that occurs in autoimmune diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. 

Key to understanding both these processes is a population of peripheral T cells called intestinal regulatory T-cells (T_reg) that were up to now poorly understood. Through Ion PGM™ sequencing of the T-cell receptor (TCR), this paper demonstrates that the predominant T_reg cells in peripheral tissues, such as the intestine and colon, are derived from the thymus. This paper provides new insight into the T_reg tolerance of antigens produced by intestinal microbes and for the control needed to treat intestinal inflammation that occurs during ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

Judges of Ion Torrent™ Breakthrough Award 2013

The final Breakthrough Award winner was determined by a panel of expert judges, including Ion Torrent™ scientists and two external judges, Prof. Leonid L. Moroz, Ph.D. and Mr. Joseph Boland, M.S., both pioneering researchers in the field next-generation sequencing applications and the use of Ion Torrent™ technology. Summaries of the five finalist publications can be found at lifetechnologies.com/breakthroughaward

The finalists for the Ion Torrent™ Breakthrough Award 2013 are:

Cebula A, Seweryn M, Rempala GA, et al. (2013) Thymus-derived regulatory T cells contribute to tolerance to commensal microbiota. Nature 497:258–262.

Stolle E and Moritz RFA (2013) RESTseq–efficient benchtop population genomics with RESTriction fragment sequencing. PLoS ONE 8(5):e63960. 

Kimoto M, Yamashige R, Matsunaga Ki, et al. (2013) Generation of high-affinity DNA aptamers using an expanded genetic alphabet. Nat Biotech 31:453–457.

Nikiforova MN, Wald AI, Roy S, et al. (2013) Targeted next-generation sequencing panel (ThyroSeq) for detection of mutations in thyroid cancer. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. Published online before print August 26, 2013.

Hall-Mendelin S, Allcock R, Kresoje N, et al. (2013) Detection of arboviruses and other micro-organisms in experimentally infected mosquitoes using massively parallel sequencing. PLoS ONE 8(2):e58026.

Ion Torrent products are For Research Use Only.  Not for Use in Diagnostic Procedures.

About Life Technologies 
Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: LIFE) is a global biotechnology company that is committed to providing the most innovative products and services to leading customers in the fields of scientific research, genetic analysis and applied sciences. With a presence in more than 180 countries, the company's portfolio of 50,000 end-to-end solutions is secured by more than 5,000 patents and licenses that span the entire biological spectrum—scientific exploration, molecular diagnostics, 21^st century forensics, regenerative medicine and agricultural research. Life Technologies has approximately 10,000 employees and had sales of $3.8 billion in 2012.

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Life Technologies Corporation
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SOURCE Life Technologies Corporation