美国OpGen
OpGen公司是一家私人持有的DNA分子诊断公司总部位于美国马里兰州盖瑟斯堡。

OpGen Incorporated is a privately held DNA molecular diagnostics company headquartered in Gaithersburg Maryland. The Company was founded in January 2002 by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (“WARF”) with the objectives of developing and commercializing products and services utilizing proprietary core Optical Mapping Technologies for high precision microbial analysis markets. Optical Mapping is a powerful technology uniquely designed to rapidly generate de novo, high-resolution, ordered, whole genome restriction maps from single DNA molecules. Optical Mapping provides a comprehensive view of microbial, yeast, or fungal genomic architecture, in samples of pure isolates or mixtures. Intrinsic to the technology are significant advantages that include the generation of ordered, high resolution data, >100 restriction sites/mb, without the cost of whole genome DNA sequencing or the inherent biases found in existing methodologies. Additionally, OpGen’s proprietary MapSolver™ analysis software enables the user to have maximum functionality and flexibility for visualizing all genomic data. Optical Maps can be compared and explored to find similarities, differences, insertions, deletions, genetic modifications, mobile elements such as pathogenicity islands, and uniquely, novel discovery.

The Company currently resides in two locations, the corporate offices and commercial MapIt™ laboratory are located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Select development functions are located in Madison, Wisconsin.

Our Beginning
The Company began deploying the capability and utility of Optical Mapping Technology in Life Sciences Specialties where Customers are able to obtain MapIt Optical Mapping Services for specific microbial projects on a by-quotation basis, worldwide. Applications include but are not limited to strain typing and epidemiology, sequence assembly and validation, and comparative genomics. These applications are utilized for a variety of purposes by diverse industries including clinical and food microbiology, food safety, epidemiology, pharmacology, microbial forensics, manufacturing quality control and applied research. Customers may order Optical Mapping Services by contacting Customer Support and discussing their specific project needs, sample preparation and transport requirements with a Customer Support Specialist.

Our Journey Forward…
The Company is now fully engaged in the development of automated instrument systems, structured in user-friendly, rapid, reliable and cost-effective formats. Each system will be tailored to meet specific market requirements and user needs, and will have broad, comprehensive microbial menus to support market-specific applications. Instrument system architecture will integrate High Molecular Weight DNA (HMW) sample preparation, sample processing and analysis to provide a robust, discrete “load and go” system that will enable flexibility in workflow planning, reduce hands-on time requirements, and free up staff time for other projects.

The Life Science (LS) instrument system, the Argus Optical Mapping System, will deliver de novo, high-resolution, ordered, whole genome restriction maps from single molecules in hours instead of days/weeks/months as is currently required for genomic analysis in array, gel and sequencing technologies. LS applications include comparative genomics, whole genome sequence assembly, strain typing and epidemiology.

The Diagnostic (DX) instrument system will be geared to deliver results in a clinically-important timeframe of 3 to 4 hours from receipt of the patient’s sample in a clinical laboratory and to maximize efficiency for laboratory-specific workflow requirements. DX applications include microbial identification (ID), strain typing and infection control epidemiology.

Utilizing OpGen’s Optical Mapping core technology and the Company’s proprietary MapSolver™ Optical Map analysis software, the instrument systems will enable researchers from diverse industries in Life Sciences Specialties and Clinical Diagnostics, to perform high resolution microbial testing directly in their own laboratories.