"Next Generation Sequencing technology will clearly dominate the coming decade,"

-Sanjiv P Karandikar, VP, molecular and cell biology, Labindia Life Sciences

What are some of the hot emerging technologies in the cell and molecular biology space?

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology will clearly dominate the coming decade in terms of scientific developments. Typically, NGS platforms are looked upon as a tool to complete the Whole Genome Sequencing projects in a reasonable time-frame. With the introduction of Applied Biosystems' recently introduced NGS platform, the SOLiD System, the NGS market space has undergone substantial change. The SOLiD System is designed to perform a wide range of applications including SNP discovery, gene expression analysis, transcriptome analysis, ChIP analysis, and also offers the possibility of upgrading to a higher throughput version without hardware change. We perceive SOLiD as a complementary technique to real time PCR, microarray analysis and CE based DNA sequencing which will help scientists complete their large-scale projects at a very affordable price

What have been growth trends in this space?

The molecular and cell biology (MCB) division of Labindia has been growing at a rate of over 30 percent for the last four years. DNA sequencing has been our flagship product line and constitutes maximum share of MCB business. However, real time PCR is the fastest growing product line. Since the last three years, the real time PCR market has been growing rapidly and we have been successful in capturing more market share than last year. Over the last couple of years, Applied Biosystems and Labindia have identified the consumables business as one of the important "growth drivers" and it has been growing at more than 30 percent in the last two years.

How much market share do you enjoy in these segments?

As far as DNA sequencing market is concerned, we are enjoying a market share of more than 95 percent with a steady growth of 15-20 percent. This implies that the majority of the instruments that are bought across India are from us. In the real time PCR market, we have a market share of more than 60 percent which is growing steadily every year.