Helicos BioSciences climbs on publication report

Helicos says its technology was used to sequence individual RNA molecules in upcoming study

• On 2:34 pm EDT, Thursday September 24, 2009

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Helicos BioSciences Corp. said Thursday its True Single Molecule Sequencing technology was used to directly sequence individual RNA molecules in a recent study.

The genetic analysis instrument company said the study will appear in a future issue of Nature. The company says True Single Molecule Sequencing is the only commercially available method that can directly sequence RNA molecules without copying their complementary DNA, which can be difficult and create errors.

Helicos said the technology can be used in researching genomes, cancer, common diseases and microbiology.

Its stock price jumped 35 cents, or 14.8 percent, to $2.79. About 9.9 million shares changed hands by 2 p.m. Over the past 100 days, average trading volume for the stock was about 1.4 million shares.