Twins Alexis and Noah Beery suffered from dopa-responsive dystonia, a hard-to-diagnose movement disorder that causes the muscles to contract and spasm involuntarily. The twins were not diagnosed until the age of 5. Now, at age 13, after enduring years of physical and emotional pain, they have found life-altering treatment. The twins’ father was so inspired by the potential of DNA analysis to help his children and others with similar struggles that he came to work for Life Technologies.

“We spent five-and-a-half years searching for what is actually a relatively simple problem to solve. During those years, there is nothing I would not have done as a parent to make them more comfortable and to get them where they are today. And I think in sequencing, having the ability to identify this problem right after birth would have been…life changing …”
--Joe Beery, Chief Information Officer

In 1983, Kenny Waters was convicted of a murder he did not commit. His sister, Betty Anne, spent two decades working to set him free. After 18 years in prison, DNA testing of a blood sample exonerated Kenny. The moving story of Kenny’s survival and Betty Anne’s perseverance is the subject of Conviction, a feature film produced by the Innocence Project, starring Academy Award winner Hilary Swank.

The Innocence Project is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongly convicted people through DNA testing, and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. To date, DNA results have freed more than 250 people from incarceration for crimes they did not commit. Life Technologies was a proud sponsor of Conviction and applauds the efforts of the Innocence Project. Together, we are committed to developing the most cutting-edge tools to help solve and prevent a wide variety of crimes, to contribute to public safety and security, and to exonerate the wrongly convicted.

Cheetahs are a unique breed of cat. Approximately 99 percent of their genes are identical, a biologically significant fact given that in most mammalian species only 80 percent of the genes in related individuals are identical. This lack of variation compromises the big cat’s ability to adjust to sudden environmental changes. Thus, cheetahs are highly susceptible to certain viruses and reproductive health problems. Today, only 10,000 wild cheetahs exist globally.

The middle of African bush country might seem like an unlikely place for a high-tech DNA laboratory, but with 20 percent of the world’s free-ranging cheetah population living in Namibia, it's the perfect place to develop the tools needed to save this endangered population. In 2009, we invested in the founding of the Applied Biosystems Genetic Conservation Laboratory, located at the headquarters of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Otjiwarongo, Namibia. Here,  four scientists and 50 international course participants have been trained on advanced genomic analysis technology and have developed a noninvasive genetic monitoring program, using Life Technologies genetic analysis systems and reagents as tools in their work to accurately characterize the population of cheetahs in Namibia and other home-range countries. Scientists are not only tracking the cats but are working to answer questions such as how cheetah genes transfer from one population to another, in order to identify geographical patterns of genetic variation and to study the animals’ behavior in specific habitats. This partnership is designed to further our knowledge of biodiversity on a larger scale, with a goal of giving us the knowledge we need to reverse negative trends in species loss.

“What makes Life Technologies and our industry particularly exciting is that we can meaningfully contribute to improving the human condition by the work that we do over an extended period of time. I see the [Haiti earthquake] relief fund as an opportunity to act upon that same aspiration today …”
--Nicholas Barthelemy, President of the Cell Systems Division, Life Technologies

In addition to a significant financial contribution from its Foundation, Life Technologies is deploying sequencing technologies for the DNA PROKIDS project in Haiti.
Using cutting-edge sequencing technologies, the DNA PROKIDS program allows Haitian officials to take samples of genetic data from 6,000 adults who have reported missing children, from immediate relatives with a blood relationship, and from children with no family or doubtful relatives. The aim is to help reunite abducted and homeless children with their parents after the devastating earthquake.

The process will fulfill all warranties and quality requirements in sample chain of custody and data analysis and delivery, ensuring that families who can be reunited will be reunited.

The market for real-time PCR instruments and reagents is a relatively mature one where Life Technologies already holds a substantial position. In 2009, the challenge was growing this market by redefining how we think about our customers, our business and how we work together.
Using the UCI process and starting with observing customers as users, the product team learned that customers need more than innovative products; they need a “great colleague in the lab” to guide them in the use of technology. As they learn and use the technology, their needs evolve and change.
The need for connection is greatest for researchers who are just learning the technology and looking for guidance. It drops off with intermediate users, who are fairly confident with the technology and need only residual support, and rises again for experts who want to share their knowledge with others and collaborate. These findings did not always correlate to the way Life Technologies interacted with researchers.  Our practices were not evolving with our customers needs.

The project team created a model of contact and connection that would best fit the user’s level of expertise. This was achieved by using a web-based tool for researchers so they could easily find necessary information to plan and troubleshoot experiments based on their experience level.

While these concepts are still being tested and refined, feedback from users during prototyping has been very positive.

One challenge for the pharmaceutical community globally is to develop drugs that are effective for individual populations. Life Technologies aides in this endeavor; a breakthrough in South Africa has revealed new and surprising diversity within the human genome, and demonstrated how interconnected individuals are to one another.

A Southern African Bushmen collaborative project involved the whole-genome sequencing of two named individuals: !Gubi, a Kalahari Bushman, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This project had some surprising results.

• It established a new benchmark in the level of diversity within the human genome. The Kalahari Bushmen live near what is thought to be the epicenter of ancestors to the modern human. Due to this close physical proximity, we observe a high level of diversity within their genome. For example, we saw more diversity between two bushman that live about 1000 miles apart than is seen between a Caucasian and an Asian.
• Archbishop Tutu was sequenced on the premise that his ancestors belonged to two of the major groups within the Bantu population. Instead, the study uncovered that somewhere in Archbishop Tutu's lineage, on his maternal side, there was an African Bushwoman, proving that Archbishop Tutu is distantly and directly related to the Kalahari Bushmen.

By characterizing the genetic variations that are present in Southern African genomes, better drugs (such as anti-viral drugs for HIV) can be generated that are useful for specific populations. This project represents an important first step toward this goal.