Sequencing System Used for Detection of HIV Tropism

454 Life Sciences, a Roche company, announced that a team of researchers from the BC Centre of Excellence in HIV/Aids, and the University of British Columbia, Canada, have used the Genome Sequencer FLX system to monitor low frequency HIV variants from human samples in a recent study. The preliminarily results of the study were presented by Dr. Richard Harrigan, the Centers Director of Research Labs at the HIV DART 2008 conference in Puerto Rico in a presentation entitled Quantification of HIV Tropism by Deep Sequencing Shows a Broad Distribution of X4 Variants in Clinical Samples Associated with Virological Outcome. The background of this research study is that correct determination of HIV tropism is critical for the administration of a new class of drugs called CCR5 antagonists used for the treatment of Aids.