Applied Biosystems has announced the commercial availability of the Solid 3 Plus System: an enhanced next-generation genomic analysis platform.
The Solid 3 Plus System is designed to allow researchers to move one step closer to performing the mainstream sequencing of personal genomes for clinical research and personalised medicine.
The technical enhancements to the platform include higher throughput, decreased running costs and faster data analysis, which deliver on a roadmap that enables scientists to sequence entire genomes in a more cost-effective manner.
The Solid 3 Plus System is capable of generating more than 60 gigabases of mappable sequence data per run at a 20 per cent lower cost-per-sequencing run than previously possible.
The combination of increased throughput, which equates to an approximate 50 per cent decrease in cost per gigabase, shorter run times and improved data analysis makes the Solid technology suitable for large-scale re-sequencing genomic projects.
A recently introduced advanced software solution, Bioscope, provides an integrated framework for data analysis, which allows researchers to benefit from smaller data files sizes while delivering faster mapping times.
The addition of Bioscope enables researchers to export data into a standard base sequence format, enabling the combination of data from multiple sequencing platforms into a single project-based analysis and allows the direct comparison of data from multiple next-generation sequencing platforms.
This is beneficial in large-scale genomic studies, such as the 1000 Genomes Project.
Dr Hans Lehrach, head of the Vertebrate Genomics Department at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, is currently utilising four Solid systems for the 1000 Genomes Project and various other programmes.
His work is focused on the fields of cancer genomics, genome analysis and systems biology with particular interest in the cellular and molecular mechanisms of cancer and other diseases.
Lehrach's research team currently uses the Solid system for a range of genomic studies, including whole-genome re-sequencing, methylation analysis, miRNA and targeted re-sequencing.
He said: 'In our view, next-generation sequencing is a key step to the future of personalised medicine.
'Due to its high accuracy and its relatively low sequencing costs, the Solid platform is clearly a major contributor in this development.
'The Solid 3 Plus technology, in particular, will enable the targeted re-sequencing of the larger-sized panels of individuals, especially in the field of cancer,' added Lehrach.
