Helicos BioSciences Corp. (NSDQ:HLCS) teamed up with cancer researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital to demonstrate the clinical utility of Helicos’ single molecule sequencing platform.
Daniel Haber, director of MGH’s Cancer Center, and his colleagues published their findings online in Nature Methods.
Haber said the research "demonstrates significant potential clinical advantages of the single molecule-sequencing platform." He added that Helicos’ technology "can effectively utilize a very small number of cells for accurate molecular characterization, while being less prone to errors and representational biases seen with other sequencing techniques," in a prepared statement.
The scientists extracted single RNA molecules from malignant and nonmalignant mouse and human cells and analyzed them with Helicos’ HeliScope Flow Cell device.
It’s a big win for the struggling company, which last month launched its molecular diagnostics business after a significant restructuring.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based genomics firm eliminated 40 jobs in May as it gave up on its genetic analysis and drug discovery businesses to focus solely on the molecular diagnostics market.
