The UK genomic tools developer, RevoluGen Ltd., has entered into a non-exclusive distribution agreement with Welgene Biotech Co., Ltd. of Taiwan, for the distribution of its Fire Monkey/Fire Flower High Molecular Weight DNA (HMW-DNA) extraction and purification product. RevoluGen has invented a game-changing technology that extracts highly pure, long-length DNA, the important first step in DNA sequencing.

Under the terms of the agreement, RevoluGen has granted Welgene the rights to promote, market and sell Fire Monkey/Fire Flower to its molecular biology users across Taiwan. Welgene is a leading life science distributor focused on molecular and cell biology that will accelerate the commercialization of Fire Monkey/Fire Flower, in the Taiwanese commercial and research markets for long-read DNA sequencing and structural genomics.

The Fire Monkey/Fire Flower kit uses spin columns to both extract HMW-DNA with an average length of 100kb or more from animal and bacterial cells and to remove the fragments of DNA smaller than 10kb. The longer the DNA that can be extracted intact, the better any subsequent long genomic sequencing reads can be. The Fire Monkey protocol extracts both DNA and RNA in just one hour, with only small samples required. It is better, faster and simpler than the competition at extracting HMW-DNA from cells.

With DNA concentrated in the 100kb Goldilocks range of lengths, its technologies improve the accuracy and efficiency of DNA sequencing in particular, long-read DNA sequencing, which is vital to resolve the extensive repeat regions found within both bacterial and mammalian genomes, and to identify structural variations impacting health and disease.

“Our Fire Monkey/Fire Flower product is already being used in leading laboratories across the UK, EU and USA. Users have recommended the kit for its high quality, high molecular weight DNA which makes it very suitable for long-read and other types of sequencing. The other available kits for HMW-DNA in the market being nowhere near as good as our NAIP kit” said RevoluGen CEO Pieter Haitsma Mulier.

In addition to this agreement with Welgene, RevoluGen signed a non-exclusive distribution agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany for global distribution through its MilliporeSigma division in 2019. RevoluGen retains manufacturing rights to its products, with an agreement in place with Cytivia for manufacturing at its UK site