DNA has been at the heart of the Roche Diagnostics business for 20 years. In 1991 Switzerland pharmaceutical group buys worldwide rights for the polymerase chain reaction, a key technology for manipulating and strengthen the genetic material.
Since then, Roche has developed and acquired a series of tests for detecting and decoding DNA, ranging from individual genes in viruses and bacteria to the entire human genome-3bn biochemistry “letter” that makes us the genetic code.
In 2007 Roche purchase 454 Life Sciences, based in Connecticut, a leading manufacturer of “high-throughput” DNA sequencer. Although the 454 still has loyal followers customer, it is considered today’s fast-moving industry as gene reading niche players.
The current leader in large-scale DNA sequencing technology is alive, the US company to another.
Though Illumina may have the greatest market share, Life Technologies put great challenge earlier this month when it announced a new sequencer which you can read the entire human genome in less than a day to $ 1,000.