Sequencing
Company Announcements
In January, MGI, a subsidiary of BGI, announced its expansion in the Middle East with a new office in Dubai.
In February, Miami Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, implemented Philips’ cloud-based comprehensive genomics platform under a multi-year agreement to inform cancer treatment options through advanced NGS diagnostics. This new initiative with Philips and Miami Cancer Institute also helped accelerate the lab’s launch of the TruSight Tumor 170 (TST170) NGS testing service, in collaboration with Illumina and N-of-One.
HTG Molecular Diagnostics announced in February a fourth amendment of the second statement of work (SOW) with QIAGEN under their Master Assay Development, Commercialization and Manufacturing Agreement. The Fourth SOW Two amendment contemplates the use of the investigational use-only assays developed in the previous phases of SOW Two in multiple pharma clinical trials and additional development activities, which potentially could be included in a future companion diagnostic regulatory submission.
HTG Molecular Diagnostics’ 2018 revenues grew 45.7% to $21.5 million (see Bottom Line). Product and Product-related Services, and Collaborative Development Services represented 34% and 56% of revenues, growing 34.2% and 55.5%, respectively. Instrument revenue declined 8.6%, while Consumables sales grew 27.1%.
In February, QIAGEN entered into a broad agreement with Ares Genetics, a subsidiary of Curetis, to develop bioinformatics and assay solutions to accelerate research targeting antibiotic-resistant bacteria. QIAGEN acquired an exclusive license to leverage Ares Genetics’ antimicrobial resistance database, ARESdb, as well as bioinformatics tools and workflows from the ARES Technology Platform, AREStools. QIAGEN also obtained a non-exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize molecular research assays using ARESdb content with its NGS and PCR solutions.
Rare disease diagnostics AI software provider Diploid entered into a partnership in February with Genomenon, integrating their respective Mastermind Genomic Search Engine and Moon diagnostic software.
In February, the Illumina Corporate Foundation and Discovery Education, a provider of digital curriculum resources, digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, launched DNA Decoded, a program designed to equip middle and high school teachers with lessons and activities for teaching genomics.
In March, Illumina announced an agreement with Boai NKY Medical to jointly develop an integrated NGS system that provides IVD assays for genetic kidney disease testing based on Illumina’s MiniSeq System and related sequencing consumables. The solution will integrate NKY’s proprietary testing component that includes library preparation kits and analysis software. Illumina stated that the collaboration is a significant step toward achieving National Medical Products Administration approval in China.
In February, the Medical Genome Initiative, a consortium that will work to expand access to high-quality clinical whole genome sequencing (cWGS) for the diagnosis of genetic diseases, launched. The Initiative will focus on the publication of common laboratory and clinical best practices for the application of cWGS. Founding member institutions include Baylor Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Illumina, Mayo Clinic, Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids Toronto) and Stanford Medicine.
Murrieta Genomics, the genomic sequencing business incubator, and SeqOnce, maker of RhinoSeq library construction kits, announced a partnership in February.
In February, seqWell, which provides multiplex barcoding library preparation technology, announced distribution partnerships covering 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific Rim, Europe and the Middle East.
Thermo Fisher Scientific announced in February that Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare granted expanded approval to its NGS-based multiplex Oncomine Dx Target Test CDx System, adding 3 additional biomarkers to the 8 already approved for targeted therapies for non-small cell lung cancer.
In March, genomics services company TATAA Biocenter announced a collaboration to offer exploratory microRNA profiling services and distribution of SomaGenics’ RealSeq NGS products in Scandinavia, and the Czech and Slovak Republics.
Product Introductions
In February, Oxford Nanopore released the ‘109’ cDNA Kit, which provides high throughput while generating complete sequences of full-length cDNA strands, with a low input option of 1 ng PolyA+ RNA. The new cDNA sequencing method enables users to sequence whole transcriptomes to high coverage on a single MinION flow cell (10–15 million reads x full-length transcript).
Illumina announced in February the availability of the NovaSeq 6000 S Prime (SP) Reagent Kit. The new NovaSeq S-Prime Reagent Kits are available in 100- and 300-cycle configurations, as well as a 500-cycle configuration that will support read lengths up to 2 x 250bp.
In February, Dolomite Bio debuted the scRNASeq Reagent Kit to enable robust and reliable generation of PCR-amplified cDNA libraries on its Nadia Instrument, allowing high-throughput gene expression profiling of heterogenous cell populations.
Partek released in February Partek Flow 8.0, designed for single-cell omics. The t‑SNE plot feature can now be used for visualization of multimodal single-cell experiments, such as the simultaneous analysis of protein and mRNA expression.
In February, Circulomics launched the Short Read Eliminator Kit to perform size selection purification of high molecular weight DNA for long-read sequencing library preparation. The kit enhances long-read sequencing read lengths by using size selective precipitation to remove short DNA. Short DNA up to 25 kb in length are progressively depleted, while DNA less than 10 kb in length is nearly completely removed.
In February, New England Biolabs preannounced the release of the NEBNext Enzymatic Methyl-seq (EM-seq) products, which provide an enzymatic alternative to bisulfite sequencing, combined with high-efficiency, streamlined library preparation. The company will also introduce NEBNext Companion Module for Oxford Nanopore Technologies’ ligation sequencing, as well as NEBNext DNA repair, End prep and Ligation reagents for use alongside Oxford Nanopore’s SQK-LSK109. NEB also previewed new options for depletion of abundant RNAs.
Agilent Technologies launched in February the turnkey, fully automated Magnis NGS Prep System. The solutions includes reagents and protocols that make it easy to assay multiple genes and complex genetic aberrations from genomic DNA with a one-day turnaround for results.
In February, Lexogen introduced the CORALL Total RNA-Seq Library Prep Kit, an all-in-one library preparation kit for whole transcriptome analysis applications. CORALL is a fragmentation-free protocol and works with 1 ng to 1 μg of total RNA.
Twist Bioscience debuted the Twist Human Core Exome Kit and Twist Custom Panels NGS target enrichment workflows, available to early access customers, in February. New products include Twist Fast Hybridization and Wash Kit; Twist Universal Blockers to allow flexible blocking and improved on-target capture; the Twist Universal Adapter System, to maximize performance for library preparation; and the Twist Mechanical Fragmentation Library Prep Kit for highly degraded samples.
In March, MGI, a subsidiary of BGI, introduced CoolNGS chemistry, a new sequencing approach for its DNBseq sequencing technology that enhances the throughput, accuracy, read length and cost effectiveness of DNA sequencing.
Loop Genomics, the single-molecule counting long-read sequencing company with a hardware free solution, introduced in March what it calls the first solution that provides both transcript counting and phasing for mRNA using long reads on Illumina sequencers in one kit.
In March, Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) debuted the rhAmpSeq targeted sequencing system for amplicon sequencing on Illumina NGS platforms. The technology employs a unique RNase H2/DNA polymerase two-enzyme system coupled with RNA-DNA hybrid primers that increase the specificity of PCR amplification while minimizing primer dimer formation.
Sales and Orders of Note
In February, Genomics England selected QIAGEN’s QCI (QIAGEN Clinical Insights) portfolio offering on behalf of the National Health Service to support the UK’s program to sequence, analyze and interpret 5 million genomes over the next 5 years. QIAGEN will support a national network of UK laboratories.
BC Platforms announced in February that it is providing a customizable end-to-end SAAS genomics platform to Bumrungrad International, a multi-specialty hospital located in Bangkok, Thailand.