Our Devices - Q-SEQ™

Q-SEQ™

This is QuantuMDx's DNA sequencing device. The technology uses our nanowire biosensors arrayed in various different formations and structures to provide both short reads and long reads.

Clinical DNA sequencing for many genetic disorders are not overly dependent on rapid turnaround times. However, predicting a patient’s response to expensive therapies would significantly benefit both the patient and the health funder.

Further problems include the emergence of new, virulent and drug resistant strains of bacteria and viruses as witnessed by the recent outbreaks of swine flu, bird flu and foot & mouth, in addition to the emergence of drug resistant strains of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and TB. DNA sequencing of these infectious agents, to identify strain and drug resistance routinely takes weeks or even months.

Q-SEQ™ is being developed to undertake ‘Genomic sequencing – while you wait’. Shotgun sequencing, which is the only NGS method presently available, can not provide the full story of variation, as it is unable to resolve, copy number variations large repeats and rearrangements (ie structural variation that makes up a significant proportion of human genetic variation). A combination of shotgun and targeted long read-length sequencing will facilitate the definitive de novo sequencing platform and deliver TRUE whole genome sequencing, not the ~70% genome sequencing that shotgun platforms presently offer.