OpGen Contact:
Judy Macemon
VP Marketing, OpGen, Inc.
(240) 813-1279

OpGen Announces Formation of Public Health Consortium to Evaluate Whole Genome Mapping for Improved Genetic Analysis of Disease Outbreaks

Gaithersburg, Md.—May 17, 2012— OpGen, Inc., a commercial stage whole-genome analysis company, today announced the formation of a public health consortium to evaluate OpGen’s Whole Genome Mapping technology as an enhanced method for strain typing microorganisms that cause disease outbreaks. The consortium is comprised of the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the University of Maryland Institute for Genome Sciences, and 11 state public health laboratories from across the United States.

The rise in disease outbreaks due to food borne illnesses and hospital acquired infections poses an ongoing threat to public health. Public health officials and healthcare organizations need access to improved first responder technologies to rapidly identify disease causing agents in order to effectively control and contain outbreaks and treat patients. Today’s genotyping technologies, such as PFGE, are limited in the type of information they provide for microbial strain typing. OpGen’s Whole Genome Mapping technology provides a rapid, comprehensive structural analysis of microbial genomes that, combined with sequencing, provides a new genetic analysis workflow that more accurately detects important genetic elements associated with virulence and drug resistance. The Whole Genome Map data can be used to guide sequencing of these targeted regions to enable more accurate understanding and response management at an early stage in outbreaks. The initial results from the consortium study will be presented on May 20th at the APHL annual meeting in Seattle, WA.

“We are extremely pleased to be working with our consortium partners to evaluate Whole Genome Mapping as an enhanced genetic analysis technology for confirmation and management of disease outbreaks,” said Douglas White, chief executive officer of OpGen. “The level of accuracy and discrimination that is achieved by combining Whole Genome Mapping and next generation sequencing can enable a new paradigm for outbreak management.”

The purpose of the consortium is to demonstrate the capabilities of Whole Genome Mapping as a more effective genomics analysis technology for outbreak analysis. “Public Health Laboratories operate as a first line of defense to protect the public against diseases and other health hazards, and as such we need to be using cutting-edge technologies to identify, address and protect the public from health risks,” said Scott Becker, APHL executive director “We are pleased to be part of this new consortium that brings together leaders in the public health field to collaborate on the use of new genomic analysis technologies to better identify and manage disease outbreaks.”

About OpGen, Inc.

OpGen, Inc. is a leading innovator in providing rapid, accurate genomic and DNA analysis systems and services. The company’s Argus® Whole Genome Mapping System, GenomeBuilder™ and MapIt® Services provide high resolution, whole genome maps for sequence assembly and finishing, strain typing and comparative genomics in the life sciences market. OpGen’s powerful technology dramatically improves the quality of data and time-to results by providing sequence information from single DNA molecules more rapidly and less expensively than previously possible. The company is dedicated to positively influencing individual healthcare outcomes, advancing scientific research and enhancing public health by delivering precise, actionable information and results to customers in the life science and healthcare communities. OpGen’s customers include leading genomic research centers, biodefense organizations, academic institutions, clinical research organizations and biotechnology companies. For more information, visit http://www.opgen.com/.

Media Contact:
Dan Budwick 
Pure Communications, Inc.
(973) 271-6085 

Opgen Contact:
Judy Macemon 
VP Marketing, Opgen, Inc.
(240) 813-1279 

OpGen Announces Strategic Collaboration with IQT to Develop High-Throughput Genomic Assembly and Analysis System

Gaithersburg, Md.—May 1, 2012— OpGen, Inc., a commercial stage whole-genome analysis company, today announced a strategic collaboration with In-Q-Tel (IQT), the non-profit, strategic investment firm that delivers innovative technology solutions to support the missions of the U.S. Intelligence Community. The collaboration is focused on developing a new high- throughput sequence and genome mapping pipeline for microbial genome analysis. The technology is being developed for the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T), an IQT customer agency, and the National Bioforensic Analysis Center, a DHS S&T laboratory. 

“OpGen is the leader in developing Whole Genome Mapping technologies for use with next generation sequencing (NGS) analysis pipelines,” said Simon Davidson, partner on IQT’s Investments team. “The company is the ideal partner to develop new software for high performance microbial data analysis to increase the speed and accuracy of analyzing samples from different sources to detect potential bio-threat organisms that may pose a danger to public health.” 

The enhanced application will automate the generation of OpGen’s Whole Genome Maps for use in high-throughput genomic assembly and analysis pipelines. The suite of applications in the pipeline will automatically align DNA sequence data to a map of the entire genome and recommend the most accurate finished sequences derived from the highest confidence alignments. The software system is being developed for use with computer clusters and cloud computing to provide rapid, accurate, reproducible and standardized assembly of microbial genome sequences.

 “Combining OpGen’s Whole Genome Maps with next-generation sequencing saves finishing cost and time while significantly increasing accuracy,” said Richard Moore, M.D., Ph.D., chief scientific officer of OpGen. “The additional automation to be provided by this collaboration will make the finishing process much more efficient. In addition, this project will enable more flexible configuration of the Argus^® system allowing us to better meet the analysis needs of our customers.” 

“We are pleased to partner with IQT to develop innovative tools for high-throughput, whole genome, sequence analysis,” said Douglas White, chief executive officer of OpGen. “Our ultimate goal is to develop systems, databases and services that simplify and standardize processes and information to enable the broader adoption of next-generation sequencing and Whole Genome Mapping for practical application in the biodefense, public health and clinical markets.” 

About OpGen, Inc.

OpGen, Inc. is a leading innovator in providing rapid, accurate genomic and DNA analysis systems and services. The company’s Argus^® Whole Genome Mapping System, GenomeBuilder™ and MapIt^® Services provide high resolution, whole genome maps for sequence assembly and finishing, strain typing and comparative genomics in the life sciences market. OpGen’s powerful technology dramatically improves the quality of data and time-to results by providing sequence information from single DNA molecules more rapidly and less expensively than previously possible. The company is dedicated to positively influencing individual healthcare outcomes, advancing scientific research and enhancing public health by delivering precise, actionable information and results to customers in the life science and healthcare communities. OpGen’s customers include leading genomic research centers, biodefense organizations, academic institutions, clinical research organizations and biotechnology companies. For more information, visit www.opgen.com.

 About IQT

In-Q-Tel is the not-for-profit, strategic investment firm that works to identify, adapt, and deliver innovative technology solutions to support the missions of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Launched in 1999 as a private, independent organization, IQT’s mission is to identify and partner with companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve the national security interests of the United States. Working from an evolving strategic blueprint defining the Intelligence Community’s critical technology needs, IQT engages with entrepreneurs, startups, researchers, and investors to deliver technologies that provide superior capabilities for the CIA and broader Intelligence Community. For more information, visit www.iqt.org.

You will learn:

• Why is sequence “finishing” important?
• What are barriers to sequence finishing?
• Practical approaches to move from draft to validated finished assembly

You will learn how to:

• Validate assembly for more accurate published sequence
• Get results faster with no PCR, no libraries

Click here to view the map of the location [contact-form-7]

Authors: Erin Newburn, Nianqing Xiao, Bin Zhu, Deacon Sweeney, Yunhu Wan, Ashley Bettencourt, Louis Gardner, Trevor Wagner, Emily Meudt, Emily Zentz, Rich Moore
OpGen, Inc., Gaithersburg

Next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have significantly advanced throughput and accuracy, providing complete genome sequences for a growing number of organisms. While these approaches offer the potential to accelerate biologic and clinical understanding, complex genomic regions and the significant rate of assembly errors are difficult to resolve with high confidence. Assembly of larger genomes is even further confounded by a large number of repetitive regions and other complex variations.

OpGen’s Whole Genome Mapping (WGM) is a rapid, sequence-independent technology that produces highly accurate, ordered restriction maps of whole genomes. A random group of whole-genome DNA sequences deposited in GenBank was evaluated using WGM. Comparing the map generated for each strain to the published sequence, a high percentage of these genomes were found to contain assembly errors in the finished DNA sequences. The data indicate that WGM offers a reliable sequence independent method to assemble and validate microbial genome sequence assemblies.

WGM also improves assembly for model genomes greater than 100Mb using OpGen’s new Genome-Builder™ application. WGM data and sequence data are combined in a hybrid approach to produce long-range scaffolding of human, plant and animal genomes. The resulting genome assemblies contained up to eight fold reduction in the number of scaffolds compared to results from sequencing alone, and scaffolds are joined even across difficult to sequence centromere regions.

Recent advancements have demonstrated effective construction of Whole Genome Maps covering large portions of human chromosome arms, and have detected structural variation between human individuals, including balanced rearrangements such as inversions and translocations, which are very challenging to detect by other technologies.

The data presented here indicate that WGM applications can be used on a wide spectrum of genomes to improve and validate whole-genome sequence assemblies as well as to construct human chromosome arms to detect structural variations between human individuals.

OpGen Contact:
Judy Macemon
VP Marketing, OpGen, Inc.
(240) 813-1279

Proceeds to Support Continued Commercialization of Whole Genome Mapping Technology 
 
Gaithersburg, Md.—March 7, 2012— OpGen, Inc., a commercial stage whole-genome analysis company, announced today that it has reached agreement with new and existing investors to raise up to $17 million in a new growth capital financing.  Harris & Harris Group, Inc. and Cross Creek Capital an affiliate of Wasatch Advisors, joined existing investors Highland Capital Partners, Versant Ventures, jVen Capital and CHL Medical Partners in the round. With the announced financing Misti Ushio, Ph.D., of Harris & Harris Group, will join the OpGen board of directors. 

“We are pleased to welcome Harris & Harris Group and Cross Creek Capital as new investors in the company and welcome Misti to the board of directors” said Douglas White, chief executive officer of OpGen. “The new financing will enable us to accelerate our commercial momentum and invest in building our portfolio of products and services, which allow for a more complete and accurate analysis and understanding of genomic structure and content.”  

The proceeds from this financing will be used to accelerate the commercialization of OpGen’s Argus^® Whole Genome Mapping System as well as its Genome-Builder^™ tool suite for large genome sequencing assembly and data analysis. Additionally, OpGen recently announced its intention to introduce a new application for whole human chromosome mapping that, when combined with next generation sequencing techniques, can improve the accuracy of human genome sequencing. The new application could also enable  the discovery of a wide spectrum of structural variations to pinpoint the origins of genetic diseases. 

“For the past several years, Harris & Harris Group has been looking for the next transformative technology that goes beyond high-throughput sequencing.  We are excited to have the opportunity to invest in OpGen, which has launched its Whole Genome Mapping system enabling rapid analysis of structural variation,” said Misti Ushio, Managing Director of Harris & Harris Group, Inc. “The company has demonstrated commercial success with a proven technology and a growing customer base that includes Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, The Genome Institute at Washington University, Beijing Genomics Institute and The University of Maryland Institute for Genome Sciences.” 

“The genomics field continues to rapidly evolve and OpGen is at the forefront of providing cutting edge technology to address some of the biggest challenges in this area,” said Evan Jones, executive chairman of the board and managing member of jVen Capital, LLC. “OpGen’s Whole Genome Mapping technology provides the research community with the ability to process vast amounts of sequence data and genomics information to provide a more complete and accurate picture. The company is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this need and the continued growth of the market.” 

About OpGen, Inc.
OpGen, Inc. is a leading innovator in rapid, accurate genomic and DNA analysis systems and services. The company’s Argus® Whole Genome Mapping System, GenomeBuilder™ and MapIt® Services provide high resolution, whole genome maps for sequence assembly and finishing, strain typing and comparative genomics in the life sciences market. OpGen’s powerful technology dramatically improves the quality of data and time-to results by providing sequence information from single DNA molecules more rapidly and less expensively than previously possible. The company is dedicated to positively influencing individual healthcare outcomes, advancing scientific research and enhancing public health by delivering precise, actionable information and results to customers in the life science and healthcare communities. OpGen’s customers include leading genomic research centers, biodefense organizations, academic institutions, clinical research organizations and biotechnology companies. For more information, visit www.opgen.com.

OpGen Contact:
Judy Macemon
VP Marketing, OpGen, Inc.
(240) 813-1279

Project to Combine Next Generation Sequencing with Whole Genome Mapping to Genotype and Diagnose MRSA, Tuberculosis and ampylobacter Species

Gaithersburg, Md.—February 23, 2012— OpGen, Inc., a whole-genome analysis company developing and commercializing a complete suite of break-through products and services based on its proprietary Whole Genome Mapping technology, announced today the company’s participation in the European Union’s Patho-NGen-Trace research program. This multi-year project aims to bring Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) from a specialized basic research method to a standard routine tool for medical and bio-industrial microbiology applications, providing faster pathogen identification with whole sequence genetic characterization.   OpGen’s Whole Genome Mapping technology will be used with NGS to generate more accurate sequences of the model pathogens, and to characterize genetic markers for drug-resistance, virulence and whole genome evolution that may not be detected by NGS alone.

 Funded by the European Union’sSeventh Framework Programme, the international consortium of leading experts in clinical microbiology will focus on developing NGS combined with Whole Genome Mapping as next generation DNA analysis tools that can be used for the genotyping and diagnosis of pathogens. Three pathogens will serve as models for the development project─Mycobacterium tuberculosis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Campylobacter species. All three pathogens are found worldwide and pose a serious medical threat and an important challenge when it comes to their treatment.

  “We are very pleased to be a part of this international consortium and look forward to advancing the organization’s long-term goal to control, predict and contain the spread of disease,” said Douglas White, chief executive officer of OpGen. “Combining NGS with Whole Genome Mapping will provide powerful new DNA analysis tools to overcome existing obstacles facing microbiologists and scientists and translate into public health and clinical diagnostic applications.”

 Continuing advances in sequencing technologies and the decreasing cost of sequencing have resulted in vast amounts of data that must be assembled and analyzed. There is a growing backlog of sequence data resulting from the costly and time consuming bioinformatics and computing required to complete the assemblies and analysis. Transforming this time- and resource-intensive process to a rapid, validated workflow could be adopted for routine use in public health epidemiology and diagnostic workflows.

OpGen’s Whole Genome Mapping technology has been shown to accelerate and streamline the sequence data analysis workflow.  This unique and powerful technology rapidly generates high-resolution, ordered, whole genome maps from single DNA molecules. The result is an easy-to-interpret view of the genome that reveals genome architecture in a single image and provides better accuracy for NGS applications.

About OpGen, Inc.

OpGen, Inc. is a leading innovator in rapid, accurate genomic and DNA analysis systems and services. The company’s Argus® Whole Genome Mapping System, GenomeBuilder™ and MapIt® Services provide high resolution, whole genome maps for sequence assembly and finishing, strain typing and comparative genomics in the life sciences market. OpGen’s powerful technology dramatically improves the quality of data and time-to results by providing sequence information from single DNA molecules more rapidly and less expensively than previously possible. The company is dedicated to positively influencing individual healthcare outcomes, advancing scientific research and enhancing public health by delivering precise, actionable information and results to customers in the life science and healthcare communities. OpGen’s customers include leading genomic research centers, biodefense organizations, academic institutions, clinical research organizations and biotechnology companies. For more information, visit www.opgen.com.

OpGen Contact:
Judy Macemon
VP Marketing, OpGen, Inc.
(240) 813-1279

Findings Reveal Ability to Detect Structural Variations in Human Genomes, Providing Researchers with a New Tool to Investigate the Causes of Genetic Diseases

Gaithersburg, Md.—February 14, 2012— OpGen, Inc., a whole-genome analysis company developing and commercializing a complete suite of break-through products and services based on its proprietary Whole Genome Mapping technology, announced today a new application for whole human chromosome mapping that improves the completeness of human genomes and enables thorough analysis of a wide spectrum of structural variations. This novel application will allow researchers to investigate the causes of diseases such as autism and developmental disorders where structural variations are suspected but have not been observed due to the limitations of existing genomics analysis tools. OpGen will present findings demonstrating this expanded functionality at the 2012 Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) meeting to be held in Marco Island, Florida, on February 15-18, 2012.
 

Preliminary results from a comparative genomics study using the company’s Whole Genome Mapping technology and Genome-Builder™ tool suite demonstrate the ability to efficiently and accurately order and orient large sequence scaffolds on a human genome de novo sequence project. The findings also demonstrate the ability to effectively construct complete high density physical maps of human chromosome arms and have detected structural variations between human individuals. The data will be presented in a poster session by Richard Moore, M.D., Ph.D., chief scientific officer of OpGen, on Friday, February 17 at 4:30 p.m.  
 

“The ability to detect structural variations and large scale genomic rearrangements using whole human chromosome mapping now enables researchers to better understand the markers and origins of inherited and somatic genetic diseases,” said George M. Church, Ph.D., professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Computational Genetics. “OpGen’s new technology is an exciting advance in the area of human genomics research and has the potential to lead to the development of new clinical diagnostic tests and companion therapeutics for patients.”
 

Structural variations in human chromosomes are known to cause some types of mental retardation, muscular dystrophy and certain cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. However, very few tools exist today that can identify new structural variations that might be associated with human genetic diseases. Sequencing and array CGH are limited in the kinds of genetic information they can provide.  OpGen’s Whole Genome Mapping technology can detect structural variations including balanced rearrangements, inversions and translocations, which are very challenging to detect with current methods. 
 

“Many genetic diseases such as autism and certain types of cancers can’t be explained by genetic sequencing alone,” said Douglas White, chief executive officer at OpGen. “Until now, researchers have not had the tools necessary to correlate the order and orientation of genes within a chromosome to completely and accurately determine the structural variations. When combined with sequence data, OpGen’s Whole Genome Mapping technology provides scientists with a more complete view of human chromosomes. We look forward to launching this breakthrough application through our MapIt services in 2012.”

About OpGen, Inc.
OpGen, Inc. is a leading innovator in rapid, accurate genomic and DNA analysis systems and services. The company’s Argus® Whole Genome Mapping System, GenomeBuilder™ and MapIt® Services provide high resolution, whole genome maps for sequence assembly and finishing, strain typing and comparative genomics in the life sciences market. OpGen’s powerful technology dramatically improves the quality of data and time-to results by providing sequence information from single DNA molecules more rapidly and less expensively than previously possible. The company is dedicated to positively influencing individual healthcare outcomes, advancing scientific research and enhancing public health by delivering precise, actionable information and results to customers in the life science and healthcare communities. OpGen’s customers include leading genomic research centers, biodefense organizations, academic institutions, clinical research organizations and biotechnology companies. For more information, visit www.opgen.com.

OpGen, Inc. is a leading innovator in rapid, accurate genomic and DNA analysis systems and services. The company has developed a platform, The Argus® Whole Genome Mapping System and also offers MapIt™ Services that provide high resolution, whole genome restriction maps for sequence assembly and finishing, strain typing and comparative genomics in the life sciences market. This proprietary de novo technology is free from the limitations of gel, PCR and sequencing-based methodologies, and expansion of Whole Genome Mapping technologies to large genomes and clinical diagnostics is currently in development. OpGen’s customers include leading genomic research centers, biodefense organizations, leading genomic research centers, academic institutions, clinical research organizations and biotechnology companies. 

OpGen is committed to supporting our Customers as valued partners by creating long-term relationships and continually exceeding their expectations. OpGen employees have created the company’s success. As a result of that success, we are seeking individuals who enjoy a challenge and desire to be part of a team making a difference in healthcare outcomes.

Position Summary

 We are seeking a bioinformatics scientist with experience in genomics to join our bioinformatics group. Working in a team environment, this individual will provide support for analysis and development of new applications of Whole Genome Mapping technology in analysis of a wide spectrum of genomes, including human, other mammalians and plant genomes.

 Primary Job Functions

 The incumbent will provide bioinformatics support for Argus and MapIt service customers, participate in development of new applications, and contribute to other aspects of bioinformatics effort at OpGen. S/he will utilize existing analytical tools developed at OpGen, perform analysis on optical mapping data, generate analytical reports and communicate with scientists for interpretation of the results. As a member of the bioinformatics team, s/he will also provide valuable input for new application development, and participate in the development effort.

 Education/Skills/Attributes Required 

• Advanced degree in Genomics, Bioinformatics, or other related scientific/engineering fields (or equivalent professional experiences).
• Four to eight years of working experience in genomic data analysis and bioinformatics tool development, preferably in NGS.
• Hands on experience with bioinformatics tools and databases.
• Demonstrated ability to understand computational biology and bioinformatics concepts, and complex scientific algorithms.
• Software development experience, preferable in a team environment.
• Solid programming skills in C/C++, PERL, Java, and/or shell scripting in a Unix/Linux based system.
• Experience with high performance and cloud computing is desirable.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to effectively articulate complex, technical information to customers and scientists.

Qualified applicants for the Bioinformatics Scientist position should submit a cover letter and resume to jobs@opgen.com indicating JOB CODE: BS in the subject heading.  Visit www.OpGen.com for a full listing of our open positions.  OpGen is an Equal Opportunity Employer.