OpGen

OpGen Incorporated is a privately held, whole-genome analysis 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 based on proprietary Whole Genome Mapping technologies for high-precision microbial analysis markets.

OpGen’s Whole Genome Mapping technology, formerly “Optical” Mapping technology, provides innovative tools for genomic sequence assembly and finishing, microbial strain comparison and species characterization. Whole Genome Mapping is a powerful technology uniquely designed to rapidly generate de novo, high-resolution, ordered, whole genome restriction maps from single DNA molecules. It 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. Maps can be compared and explored to find similarities, differences, insertions, deletions, genetic modifications, mobile elements such as pathogenicity islands, and uniquely, novel discovery.

OpGen’s main tasks in the project are to provide commercial access to Whole Genome Mapping technology, to offer application and technical support for high resolution strain typing, comparative genomics and sequence assembly, to consult on database development and to provide early access as appropriate to Whole Genome Mapping tools.