MassARRAY® System Selected for Illinois State Cystic Fibrosis Screening of Newborns

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Agena Bioscience has entered into a 3-year agreement with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) which will deploy Agena's MassARRAY System for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) testing as part of the state's newborn screening program.

In 2008, the state of Illinois announced the expansion of their newborn screening program to include testing for CF. At the time, it was one of only eighteen states to test for the recommended ACMG/ACOG CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) variants.  Since then, the diverse population of the state drove the need to explore development of expanded CFTR mutation profiles for the newborn screening program.  IDPH will be expanding their panel to now include 70 CFTR variants.

"We are proud to have the MassARRAY System chosen to be an integral part of one of the top newborn screening programs in the country," said Pete Dansky, Chief Executive Officer at Agena Bioscience.  "As we observed in this instance, genetic testing panels may need to evolve to account for a number of factors, including changes in the regional population.  The flexibility of the MassARRAY System will be able to support front-line laboratories such as IDPH to meet the public need for years to come."

About Agena Bioscience

Agena Bioscience develops, manufactures, and supplies genetic analysis systems and reagents, including the MassARRAY^® System. The system is a highly sensitive, cost-effective, mass spectrometry-based platform for high-throughput genetic analysis, and is used globally in diverse research fields such as cancer profiling for solid tumors and liquid biopsies, inherited genetic disease testing, pharmacogenetics, agricultural genomics, and clinical research.  For more information about Agena, visit www.agenabio.com.

About Illinois Department of Public Health

The mission of the Illinois Department of Public Health is to promote health through the prevention and control of disease and injury. IDPH, one of the state's oldest agencies founded in 1877, has an annual budget of about $325 million in state and federal funds, and has headquarters in Springfield and Chicago, seven regional offices located around the state, three laboratories and 1,100 employees. IDPH forms a frontline defense against disease through preventive measures and education.  To learn more about IDPH, visit http://www.dph.illinois.gov/

SOURCE Agena Bioscience

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