Coinciding with ASHG 2014, several firms announced new partnerships in highly competitive markets. Affymetrix announced a multiyear supply agreement with Arosa Diagnostics, which will use Affymetrix instruments and arrays as part of its Harmony noninvasive prenatal test for Trisomy 21 in fetuses, allowing wider adoption of the test. Arosa’s DANSR (Digital Analysis of Selected Regions) assay can be used on sequencing or microarray platforms.

NGS target enrichment strategies continue to advance, increasing automation options and reducing process time. Beckman Coulter announced an agreement with New England Biolabs to develop, distribute and support automation of its NEBNext sample preparation reagents kits using the Biomek liquid-handling platform. New England Biolabs announced a partnership with Directed Genomics to develop new target-enrichment and other technologies for NGS. The first codeveloped product features a single protocol for target enrichment and library construction in about six hours.