KeyGene Receives US Patent

KeyGene recently announced that its Sequence-Based Genotyping (SBG) patent portfolio has been strengthened by the grant of United States patent US 8,460,866, entitled "High Throughput Sequence-based Detection of SNPs using Ligation Assays”, protecting sequence-based SNP genotyping methods. The patented methods are used to detect target sequences with probes containing identifier sequences and circumvent limitations of competing genotyping assays relying on interpretation of fluorescence signals. The SBG methods are fully customizable in terms of numbers of SNPs and samples. The grant of this patent strengthens KeyGene´s leading position in the competitive field of SBG for breeding. The granted patent is one of several SBG patents and patent applications the company owns related to next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based discovery and detection of genome variants.

“We are very pleased with the addition of this patent to our steadily growing portfolio of proprietary NGS-based breeding applications”, states Michiel van Eijk, CSO of KeyGene. “SBG is rapidly gaining momentum over more conventional genotyping methods and the market requires products capitalizing on the power and pricing levels of NGS. We are dedicated to provide such products to our clients and partners in the Agriculture and Life Sciences fields”.

KeyGene offers its clients all over the world competitive genotyping solutions to improve and accelerate the development of new crop varieties. Highly accurate and cost-efficient methods for genotyping of known polymorphisms represent an important part of the genotyping market in all species. SBG is an important product of KeyGene’s Advanced Molecular Breeding platform. The company also provides licenses for commercial or research purposes with accompanying training and consultancy to its licensees.