Hamilton and Bionano Genomics Announce Commercial Availability of World’s First Ultra High ...

SAN DIEGO and RENO, Nev., Oct. 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hamilton and Bionano Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BNGO) announced today that the Long String VANTAGE, a system for automated, high throughput isolation of ultra high molecular weight (UHMW) DNA for use in optical genome mapping (OGM) is commercially available. The Long String VANTAGE is the result of collaborative development from the companies and features new and innovative tools and consumables used for consistent, high-quality UHMW DNA extraction using human blood samples. The Long String VANTAGE is expected to begin shipping in Q1 2023.

Since first announcing their collaboration at the European Society of Human Genetics Conference in June 2022, the companies have continued to test and refine their walk-away automation solution for UHMW DNA extraction. Hamilton’s Long String Genomics product program supports the extraction of UHMW DNA at increased scale. Initial testing has been performed on cell lines and blood samples, with bone marrow aspirates (BMA) and other sample types expected soon. Results also confirmed that labs can process up to 12 UHMW DNA samples per run and 24 UHMW DNA samples with high consistency and reproducibility in an eight-hour workday. The automated workflow marks a significant improvement over the manual method, dramatically reducing the hands-on time and the number of samples that can be purified to UHMW DNA.

The companies continue to collaborate with select clinical research laboratories to test and further develop applications with different sample types for the use of the Long String VANTAGE and the Bionano Prep SP kits. Ongoing developments will focus on the automation of UHMW DNA extraction from BMA. Hamilton plans to start taking orders for new solutions October 25, 2022. Bionano will support orders with modified and automation ready versions of the Bionano Prep SP reagent kits, and a modified compatible direct label and stain (DLS) kit.

“We believe today marks an important day for anyone seeking to implement OGM at scale, with the announcement of commercial availability of the first automated solution for UMHW DNA isolation. The analysis of UHMW DNA can provide a more thorough way of detecting genomic aberrations that may be missed by traditional cytogenetic methods. Bionano and Hamilton look forward to seeing customers benefit from this solution in the coming months, which can reduce time-to-results, reduce hands-on-time and improve OGM performance by standardizing the process of UHMW DNA isolation,” commented Erik Holmlin, PhD, president and chief executive officer of Bionano Genomics.