Updated overview of NGS and SMS platforms

Range of NGS Applications Rises Quickly

• Vicki Glaser

Advanced Technological Approach Generates Genomic Data Better, Faster, and Cheaper

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PacBio applied its single molecule real-time (SMRT™) DNA sequencing technology to decode two samples from the recent Haitian outbreak and three other strains of V. cholerae and compared them to DNA sequence....

Key advantages of MiSeq are its fast turnaround time, ease of use, and simple sample prep, said David Bentley, Ph.D. Dr. Bentley, chief scientist at Illumina, envisions customers using the system for various types of applications: to check a small amount of sample before running it on HiSeq, to analyze large numbers of poor-quality DNA samples isolated from FFPE tissues, and to detect specific mutations in patient samples from clinical trial populations.

 

Life Technologies’ Ion Personal Genome Machine (PGM™) is based on Ion Torrent’s semiconductor sequencing chips that translate chemical signals into digital information. The 314 sequencing chip contains an array of 1.3 million wells; each is the site of an individual sequencing reaction. A pH change is detected when incorporation of a new base onto a growing DNA strand produces hydrogen ions.

Complete Genomics, which leverages its human genome sequencing capabilities through a service delivery platform, employs a sequencing method based on DNA nanoball (DNB™) arrays and combinatorial probe-anchor ligation read technology. The company optimized its sequencing technology specifically for the human genome and delivers to its customers annotated sequence data, identifying key sites of sequence variation.

 

Intelligent Bio-Systems’ three-step sequencing-by-synthesis technology involves amplifying DNA fragments, attaching them to a DNA sequence primer, and then immobilizing them in a high-density array on a glass chip. Fluorescently labeled bases (a different color for A, C, G, and T) are then introduced and attach to the growing DNA strand. The array is scanned and the fluorescent signal emitted by each replicating strand indicates with base was incorporated at the completion of each base addition step.