Illumina Acquires Advanced Liquid Logic as Key Component for Next-Generation Genomic Solutions

Illumina, Inc. (San Diego, CA, USA) has announced its acquisition of Advanced Liquid Logic (ALL; Research Triangle Park, NC, USA), a leading provider of liquid handling solutions. ALL, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Illumina, has developed a proprietary “digital microfluidics” technology based on electrowetting that precisely manipulates small droplets within a sealed disposable cartridge to perform complex laboratory protocols. This technology will be used to enable Illumina to deliver a highly efficient sample-to-answer next-generation sequencing (NGS) workflow to advance diagnostic and research genomics.

“For our research customers, ALL’s technology will further streamline the industry's simplest NGS workflow, while for clinical and applied markets, where ease of use and consistency are especially valued, it will allow us to offer integrated, end-to-end solutions,” said Christian Henry, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Illumina’s Genomic Solutions business; “ALL brings an impressive IP portfolio in digital microfluidics and a talented team with a track record of innovation.”

One of Illumina's goals is to provide customers with a holistic set of tools to quickly and easily go from biological sample to answer, minimizing the risk of errors, and reducing hands-on time in the lab. To that end, Illumina announced it is collaborating with leading vendors of liquid handling robotic platforms to make automation solutions for high-throughput sample preparation more accessible. With its acquisition of ALL, Illumina will be able to introduce similar benefits to its low- and mid-throughput customers. ALL’s versatile technology has been demonstrated across numerous applications, including nucleic acid isolation from various sample types and library generation for NGS. Its robust solution has an advantage in precisely handling low sample volumes, an increasingly important focus for clinical and research laboratories.

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