HADFIELD, United Kingdom and HONG KONG, May 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — UK genomics tools company, RevoluGen Limited and Hong Kong-based life sciences distributor ProteoQuest Technology Co. Ltd are pleased to announce they have entered into an agreement for the distribution of Fire Monkey™ High Molecular Weight (HMW) DNA extraction kits across China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Fire Monkey is DNA sequencing platform agnostic suitable for both long- and short-read sequencing and enables cost-efficient hybrid sequencing (Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT)-Illumina or other short-read options), allowing flexibility for users.
Fire Monkey is the world’s first spin column based Nucleic Acid Isolation and Purification (NAIP) kit that extracts HMW-DNA in a rapid, simple and user-friendly protocol. Extracts do not require overnight resting and are therefore ready for use in ONT library workflows.
DNA extraction is the first essential step in DNA sequencing, critical to genomics applications. RevoluGen’s patent-protected technology is derived from an innovative chemistry which allows extraction of HMW-DNA using a high g-force (up to 14,000 x G) but which does not break down the long and fragile DNA molecules as much as any standard spin-column technologies. Fire Monkey performs HMW-DNA extraction from bacterial and animal cells resulting in extracts with a length of approximately 100kb.
Under the terms of the agreement, RevoluGen has granted ProteoQuest the rights to promote, market and sell Fire Monkey products to its molecular biology users in Greater China. Founded by Shang Tsai, previously of Tecan, with whom RevoluGen has a collaboration, ProteoQuest is a leading life science distributor of complete workflow products in molecular biology that will accelerate the commercialisation of Fire Monkey in the vibrant Asia Pacific markets for DNA sequencing and genomics.
“With Fire Monkey HMW-DNA extraction already proven and in commercial use in leading laboratories in the UK, including the UK Government’s Health Security Agency (UKHSA), ProteoQuest is ideally placed to bring Fire Monkey to the rapidly growing genomic-based markets in China,” said Dr Georgios Patsos, inventor of the Fire Monkey technology and CSO at RevoluGen.
Shang Tsai, Founder and CEO at ProteoQuest said, “With more labs looking to sequence DNA for both academic and the burgeoning genomics applications, there is an increasing need to extract high molecular weight DNA with the flexibility of hybrid sequencing protocols. RevoluGen’s HMW-DNA extraction is already proven to outperform competitor technologies and we are convinced that Fire Monkey has the potential to be adopted as the standard protocol where HMW-DNA extraction is required.”
The World Health Organisation, UKHSA, Genomics England (UK Department of Health and Social Care) and others have all highlighted the importance of performing both short (Ilumina) and long (ONT) reads for the same biological sample to successfully predict emerging threats within the food chain, provide accurate risk assessments during pathogen outbreak investigations and advance precision medicine for patients with cancer and other genetic disease.
Dr Georgios Patsos, inventor of the Fire Monkey technology and CSO at RevoluGen added, “Being a familiar and user-friendly spin column process, Fire Monkey is ideal for extraction of DNA for on all sequencing platforms giving users the benefit of one extraction for both their initial short-read sequencing and for any subsequent long-read sequencing that can therefore be performed on exactly the same original sample without any further cost, reprocessing problems or potential handling errors. By only needing to do one extraction rather than two it can reduce sample handling and storage significantly enabling cost effective hybrid assemblies.”
Initially available to Chinese users in commercial kit format for manual extractions, RevoluGen has developed semi-automated extraction on microtitre plates as well as fully automated DNA extraction using magnetic beads, enabling seamless integration into robotic workflows, unlike other HMW-DNA extraction methods.
The global genome sequencing market size is calculated at US$ 22.63 billion in 2024, with expected grow to US$ 26.31 billion in 2025, and is projected to reach around US$ 101.93 billion by 2034. The market is expanding at a CAGR of 16.24% between 2025 and 2034. By product, the consumables segment composes the major share of the genome sequencing market in 2024, including NAIP. The next-generation sequencing (NGS) segment is the largest revenue contributor to the market and China has one of the fastest growing and most advanced markets. Domestic biotech innovation has been a focus of recent Chinese government efforts. The expansion of the industry has been greatly aided by a new national plan. Through its “Healthy China 2030” plan, which emphasizes medical innovation and expanding access to medications, China pledged to improve health outcomes for the Chinese people.
Media contacts:
For RevoluGen
Sue Charles, Director and Head of Corporate Communications
Tel +44 (0)7968 72658586, [email protected]
For ProteoQuest
Derek Liu, Managing Director
Tel +86 18616545477 / +86 21 58555098, [email protected]
About RevoluGen – www.revolugen.co.uk.
RevoluGen is a privately held scientific research and development company commercialising molecular tools with a specific focus on rapidly extracting long and pure DNA fragments from cells.
RevoluGen’s Nucleic Acid Isolation and Purification (NAIP) products have broad application across all of both short- and long-read DNA sequencing technologies, including their use in particular for population genomics, epidemiological mutation screening and antibiotic microbial resistance gene monitoring.
The Company headquarters, R&D, manufacturing and direct customer sales and support are based in the UK. RevoluGen serves customers worldwide and has secured agreements with world-leading molecular biology tools companies including Merck KGaA (sales), ProteoQuest, Welgene and BioEntist (distribution), Cytiva (manufacturing), Tecan (96-well plates and automation) and A4P (logistics).
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About ProteoQuest
ProteoQuest is a privately held company headquartered in Hong Kong with focus on commercial distribution of genomic, proteomic, and celomic tools. The company offers technical support and service to all customers across China/Hong Kong/Taiwan. In addition to supporting and distributing consumable reagents from top solution providers, ProteoQuest also helps customer design and provide automated solutions.
