QIAGEN has announced announced a collaboration in which Seegene Inc. will develop a menu of multiplex assay panels for its modular QIAsymphony RGQ MDx automation platform.

The first project is to develop comprehensive panels to profile infectious diseases.

Seegene’s proprietary technologies for multiplexed real-time PCR analysis enable simultaneous amplification of up to 20 target genes per tube in a single reaction.

QIAGEN will validate the new tests to run on QIAsymphony RGQ MDx, its flagship automation solution, and will market them worldwide as QIAGEN-branded assays, beginning in Europe and Asia.

QIAsymphony is an innovative, easy-to-use modular system that integrates a molecular laboratory's workflow from initial biological sample processing to final insights.

The three modules of QIAsymphony RGQ MDx are QIAsymphony SP for sample preparation, QIAsymphony AS for assay setup (integrated into the SP module), and QIAGEN's real-time PCR detection platform Rotor-Gene Q MDx. QIAsymphony RGQ MDx received FDA clearance in early 2014.

The menu of diagnostics running on the QIAsymphony platform so far includes 13 CE-IVD marked tests available in 30 European countries and six FDA-approved or cleared diagnostics in the United States.

QIAGEN’s first highly multiplexed assay running on Rotor-Gene Q, the RespiFinder RG Panel for detection and differentiation of 21 respiratory pathogens, was recently launched in Europe.