Roche Applied Science is producers of reagents and systems for life science research, with focus on DNA sequencing, microarrays, gene expression, and cell analysis. Important applications fields of the company´s products are Biotech R&D and Pharma R&D. The company´s ´s product portfolio includes the Genome Sequencer FLX Titanium, the LightCyler systems for real-time PCR, the NimbleGen microarrays for studying genomic variations, and the xCELLigence Systems for real-time, impedance-based, and label-free cellular analysis and in cell invasion/ migration studies. The company also offers reagents and systems for the pharmaceuticals and diagnostics industries.

Locations

The company's headquarters is in Penzberg

Penzberg

Penzberg is a town in the Weilheim-Schongau district, in Bavaria, Germany. It is located near Munich, and had a population of 16,126 in 2005. A historic coal mining town, Penzberg today is known for its pharmaceutical industries.-History:...

 in Upper Bavaria

Upper Bavaria

Upper Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany.- Geography :Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered around the city of Munich. It is subdivided into four regions : Ingolstadt, Munich, Bayerisches Oberland , and Südostoberbayern...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

; other main sites are Mannheim

Mannheim

Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....

, Germany, Rotkreuz in Switzerland, Madison WI and Branford CT in the US.

History

Roche Applied Science was founded in 1859 as Boehringer Mannheim, a developer of rare chemicals and pharmaceuticals. In the fifties, the bioreagents product line was developed according to the company’s own needs in diagnostics research. They were the first commercially important producer of restriction enzymes, they were the first supplier of Klenow enzyme for Sanger sequencing, and they are the only supplier of a system for the non-radioactive labeling

Isotopic labeling

Isotopic labeling is a technique for tracking the passage of a sample of substance through a system. The substance is 'labeled' by including unusual isotopes in its chemical composition...

 of nucleic acid

Nucleic acid

Nucleic acids are biological molecules essential for life, and include DNA and RNA . Together with proteins, nucleic acids make up the most important macromolecules; each is found in abundance in all living things, where they function in encoding, transmitting and expressing genetic information...

.