In the research segment, though, the NGS marketplace is crowded and hotly competitive. Ultima Genomics<\/a> attracted particular attention with its launch of a sequencer and workflow that offer bulk whole-genome sequencing for $80 a genome. Complete Genomics<\/a> and Element Biosciences<\/a> also launched new instruments at or just before the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the cutting edge is going to be fast, flexible, low-cost sequencing,\u201d says Graham Wiley<\/a>, who directs the genomics core at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and was at AGBT to scope out the latest instruments.<\/p>\n For sequencing applications that require recognizing a read well enough to count it, without absolute certainty about every nucleobase\u2014assays like RNA sequencing, single-cell sequencing, and proteomics\u2014Axelios is priced to compete. \u201cPlaces where you need a whole bunch of reads\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. Axelios is going to be unbeatable,\u201d Wiley says.<\/p>\n Companies offered more assay types on each instrument<\/p>\n Flexibility in sequencing is key, according to Rob Tarbox, vice president of product and marketing at Complete Genomics. \u201cThe ways people are using [sequencing]\u2014how they\u2019re operating the machines, and also what they\u2019re using the machines for\u2014is starting to get increasingly more varied,\u201d Tarbox tells C&EN. \u201cAnd I think because of that, the machines themselves need to be more flexible.\u201d<\/p>\n One way to be more flexible is to offer more assays on the same instrument, often by converting other types of biomolecules into DNA for short-read sequencing. There is a bustling multiomics marketplace for measuring genomes alongside epigenomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, and other bulk datasets. Vendors at the meeting showcased chemistries for studying DNA methylation<\/a>, single-cell transcriptomes<\/a>, proteomes, and chromatin organization\u2014frequently on the same machine.<\/p>\n The meeting also featured an Illumina launch that purports to bridge the gap between short-read sequencing, Illumina\u2019s specialty, and more-comprehensive, but more-expensive, long-read sequencing. Piecing together certain parts of the genome<\/a> has traditionally required longer reads on instruments from PacBio or Oxford Nanopore Technologies. (Illumina once tried to buy PacBio<\/a> but dropped the deal<\/a> in response to antitrust concerns.)<\/p>\n Instead of breaking up DNA to load a library of fragments into the sequencing flow cell, Illumina\u2019s new workflow involves cut-and-paste enzymes that slice DNA right on the cell and tack it into place. Information about the longer original DNA is preserved in the relationship between adjacent reads. The technique can run using existing top-end Illumina instruments. Cande Rogert, Illumina\u2019s head of advanced science, tells C&EN that meeting attendees were keen on adding new capabilities without investing in a new platform.<\/p>\n Spatial biology pushed into a third dimension<\/p>\n AGBT is also, increasingly, a showcase for instruments for spatial biology, a fast-growing field that involves pinpointing the location of RNA and protein molecules en masse. Tarbox calls the meeting \u201ca tale of two technologies: one of spatial, and one of sequencing.\u201d<\/p>\n Many spatial approaches overlap with sequencing. For example, some workflows convert molecules\u2019 locations into DNA barcodes<\/a> to read via NGS. Others amplify RNA transcripts<\/a> in fixed tissues to enable fluorescent probes to bind.<\/p>\n Whereas spatial omics assays usually require tissue cross-sections just a few micrometers deep, the start-up Stellaromics debuted an instrument at AGBT that can image RNA in a tissue section of about 100 \u00b5m\u2014roughly the depth of a sheet of printer paper. Jeremy Lambert, the firm\u2019s director of product management, says the instrument combines confocal microscopy and sequencing fluidics to image a panel of more than 200 RNA transcripts at a time. The instrument can identify messenger RNA bound to ribosomes for active-translation purposes, and Stellaromics has piloted protein imaging as well.<\/p>\n Wiley, the researcher who was shopping at the event, says Stellaromics is the first to arrive at an application that will soon be widespread. \u201cThey\u2019re going to get some early mover advantages,\u201d he says. Though the current instrument has some room to improve, he anticipates that \u201cby the end of the year, it\u2019s going to be impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
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