Life's Great Adventure - Lab in a Mini on Tour

Life's Great Adventure - Lab in a Mini on Tour PR Newswire GLASGOW, Scotland, August 27, 2012 GLASGOW, Scotland, August 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- - From small beginnings come big discoveries as lab in a Mini democratizes DNA sequencing [TM]Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE) announced the start of its Ion Torrent Mini Lab Tour across the UK featuring a fully [TM]functional benchtop Personal Genome Machine (PGM ) DNA sequencer nestled in the boot of a Mini. Not so long ago, you needed a PhD and a lab full of equipment to sequence the DNA of a bacterium or virus, now it can be [TM]done in the back of a car - and a small one at that. Life Technologies has kitted out a pair of Minis with the Ion PGM , demonstrating how simple and accessible this new technology is. The cars start their UK university tour at the Glasgow Science Centre on 27th August at a launch event where schoolchildren will experience this DNA sequencer first hand. [TM]The PGM demonstrated its potential last year during the E.coli outbreak in Germany. Health officials confronted by this "superbug" outbreak were able to identify the strain of concern within hours, rather than days or weeks, and use that as a basis to begin planning treatment, potentially saving thousands of lives. "Aside from being cool to look at, the Mini labs with Ion Torrent technology demonstrate just how we can make accurate sequencing accessible for all," said Peter Silvester, Life Technologies' President, Europe, Middle East & Africa.