Ion announces cheap walkaway sample prep device

[ECO]

Ion has just announced a $5000 accessory box for preping samples for the PGM, called the OneTouch. Details are light but it appears to have a disposable amplification module that I assume does the ePCR and potentially enrichment as well.

See Matthew Herper's blog article at Forbes which links to the newest videos about the OneTouch here: http://blogs.forbes.com/matthewherpe...g-box-a-boost/

[ECO]

Omics omics has a take on this here: http://omicsomics.blogspot.com/2011/...announced.html

LIFE must've decided to give this device away to drive PGM adoption...amplification and centrifugation for $5k?

[epistatic]

Ready to sequence off the one-touch is open to interpretation. Life Reps confirmed it does not do enrichment. Enrichment is likely to be the biggest factor impacting data output if bead loading is consistent.

[IonTorrent]

Thanks for your interest, everyone. The Ion OneTouch system will enable one to input your library of interest and isolate template positive IonSpheres in under 3 hours with minutes of hands on time. Additional details on how we accomplish this will be forthcoming as we get closer to OneTouch’s launch.

-The Ion Torrent Team

[niceday]

even with the badly worded protocols for 1.2 kits and the brain melting emulsion break and enrichment, we still managed to get 15.2Mb of a clinical sample. We got all the snp's we should have and the data was very good quality.
With a bit of care and planning we believe we could push up to 20Mb still off 1.2 kits.
We are ordering the onetouch and hoping it arrives soon to take the lab time down from 3 days.

If you have the space and any spare money get a pgm.