Genome Mapping

Traditional map-building methods are prohibitively expensive and time-consuming for use in all but reference genome projects. BioNano developed the Irys System to overcome these limitations and enable any lab to efficiently and cost-effectively further its research by creating genome maps of any organism under study.

The Irys System makes this possible by leveraging advances in nanoscale materials engineering, rather than relying on imprecise and low-throughput biological methods such as cloning and PCR. By linearizing and uniformly stretching extremely long pieces of DNA in NanoChannel arrays, the proprietary IrysChips preserve the true architecture of the genome. Genome maps are generated from massively parallel, single-molecule visualization of extremely long DNA without amplification, providing long-range contiguity and eliminating PCR bias.

DNA molecules labeled with IrysPrep reagents contain sufficient sequence-uniqueness to unambiguously map to a reference or assemble de novo. The result is a comprehensive, accurate, unbiased view that provides unique insights into genome structure and opens the door to countless applications, both with and without sequencing.