QIAGEN this week announced a non-exclusive agreement with Phase Genomics to license specific patents to sell its EpiTect Hi-C kits in the United States. Through this agreement, QIAGEN now has access to support chromatin research in the largest research market in the world.

Chromatin conformation research, including chromatin conformational analysis (Hi-C), is an emerging and growing market area of genomic research that is refining our knowledge of the interconnectivity and organization of the genome. Hi-C has become a vital tool for understanding the structures and organization associated with cell biology. The EpiTect Hi-C Kit provides a simplified, single-box solution, requiring less than 250,000 mammalian cells to generate sequence-ready libraries.

“QIAGEN’s EpiTect portfolio has until now focused on identifying individual methylation marks and histone modification in the genome at the nucleotide level,” said Kerstin Steinert, vice president of Product Development & Research Services at QIAGEN. “With the QIAGEN EpiTect Hi-C Kit, we are providing an end-to-end solution to study the 3-D genome and identify larger structural aspects of chromatin conformation and genomic architecture.”

“This partnership demonstrates a strong confidence in the value of Phase Genomics’ technology. Now, scientists studying epigenetics can more fully understand changes in genome architecture that may trigger disease in ways that are more cost-effective than ever before,” said Ivan Liachko, PhD, founder and CEO of Phase Genomics. “Our Hi-C proximity-ligation technology, now available through QIAGEN, will help accelerate treatments to market and discover new paths toward the prevention of disease.”

In keeping with the QIAGEN commitment to provide Sample to Insight solutions, customers will have two options to analyze data from experiments. The EpiTect Hi-C Portal, located on GeneGlobe Data Analysis Center, provides multiple analysis types, including contact matrices and maps. In addition, Phase Genomics will provide a comprehensive suite of computational analytic services for Hi-C data analysis to QIAGEN EpiTect Hi-C Kit customers through a cloud-based bioinformatic platform that employs novel computational approaches and algorithms to analyze and interrogate proximity ligation (Hi-C) data.