Austin, Texas – Date: November 11, 2013 – Asuragen, Inc., a molecular diagnostic company using genomics to drive better patient management, will present at the upcoming Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) Annual Meeting on Genomic Medicine, November 13-16^th in Phoenix, AZ. The company’s scientific contributions will cover its broad expertise and development efforts in the areas of oncology, genetic testing and next generation sequencing.

Asuragen will hold a corporate workshop on quantitative measurements of BCR-ABL1 fusion transcripts on the International Scale (IS). Dr. Douglas Smith from Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Lawrence Jennings from Northwestern University will present on the background, rationale, current efforts, progress, and future directions of IS standardization for monitoring response to tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapies in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and the critical role played by molecular pathologists in the optimal clinical management of CML patients.

Asuragen’s technologies will also be featured in poster presentations on next generation sequencing (NGS). Data will be presented highlighting the impact of stringent pre-analytical DNA quality assessment criteria to assure reliable NGS results in FFPE tumor biopsies. The study demonstrates the advantages of a novel PCR assay, QFI™-PCR, in quantifying functional DNA compared to fluorometry or spectrophotometry, and illustrates how this assay can guide corrections in FFPE DNA input to rescue low quality samples, improve the accuracy of variant detection, and minimize the burden of mutation confirmation.

Expanding on more than 20 peer-reviewed publications demonstrating the utility of AmplideX® FMR1 PCR Reagents for extensive molecular characterization of the fragile X gene, novel data on the performance of AmplideX® in combination with low-cost electrophoresis platforms will be presented. In addition, a study describing a simplified PCR-only workflow for FMR1 methylation analysis evaluated by two European laboratories will be reported. The approach standardizes fragile X testing schemes without the need for Southern blot analysis, is compatible with alternative sample types to blood, and identifies low abundant mosaic alleles implicated in fragile X diagnosis and treatment.

For more information about our activities at AMP, visit the AMP section on our home page at www.asuragen.com.

About Asuragen

Asuragen is a molecular diagnostics company with a pioneering position in miRNA using genomics to drive better patient management through best-in-class clinical testing solutions. The company uses a breadth of technologies and talent to discover, develop and commercialize diagnostic products and clinical testing services with efficiency and flexibility both internally and for our companion diagnostic partners. Today, Asuragen’s products, services and technologies drive countless patient management decisions across oncology, genetic disease and other molecular testing modalities. In the future, we envision the company’s development of miRNA-based clinical diagnostics will help transform medicine by improving clinical outcomes and health economics.  For more information, visit www.asuragen.com.