Fluidigm's Access Array is an integrated fluidic circuit designed to support high-throughput re-sequencing, targeted enrichment, and library preparation for sequencing using amplicon tagging.
The Access Array IFC complements Fluidigm's Slingshot Sample Quantitation Kit, and together the solutions provide researchers with a complete front-end library preparation system.
Access Array features the ability to harvest the sample out of the chip.
Once the sample processing has been completed in the chip, it automatically returns the sample to the inlets where they can be easily extracted and placed into a quantitation step and readied for sequencing.
Fluidigm also announced an Early Access Program for Access Arrays where researchers can submit a proposal describing how the chip would help their next-generation library sample preparation efforts.
The Access Array system, which consists of IFCs, instruments and software, allows next-generation sequencing users to automatically prepare their libraries and tag them with barcodes to allow multiplex sequencing.
In addition, targeted re-sequencing (using target enrichment) has become important as researchers look at specific regions in large cohort studies.
Up until now, large sample studies have been too expensive and labour-intensive to be performed on next-generation sequencers.
Fluidigm's Access Array system allows researchers to target specific areas of interest to be enriched and barcoded so that a large number of samples can be sequenced at the same time.
Fluidigm's Access Array IFC can process 48 samples against 48 amplicons (primer pairs) providing 2,304 independent reactions at a time.
Only six steps are required to get the results from these thousands of experiments.
Because of the Access Array chip's ultra-tiny microfluidic reaction chambers the chip minimises reagent consumption and costs.
Operator time is reduced six-fold when compared with conventional methods.
Fluidigm's Access Array system joins the company's IFC portfolio of Dynamic Arrays (which maximise gene-expression analysis and genotyping efficiency), Digital Arrays (which provide a practical solution for PCR applications demanding extreme accuracy of copy number), and Topaz chips (which support protein crystallisation exploration).
