Almac Invests in Next-Generation Sequencing Capabilities

On Oct. 11, 2018, Almac Diagnostic Services, which specializes in biomarker driven clinical trials, has added a Illumina NovaSeq 6000 sequencer to its range of next-generation sequencing capabilities, which include DNA and RNA sequencing offerings. The company states the new equipment will allow for larger sample runs, greater read depth, and faster speeds, and will reduce sample turnaround times and increase variant detection quality and accuracy. Almac has also invested in informatic infrastructure and high-speed uplinks to cloud-based providers to support the new capacity.

The company will now be able to sequence transcriptions of up to approximately 384 samples per run in as short as 36 hours. Scalable throughput and flexibility for any sequencing method, genome, or scale of project will now be available to the company’s clients. The company’s customizable solution allows its clients to tailor their diagnostic requirements across multiple platforms and chemistry options.

“We are excited about the potential benefits the NovaSeq will be able to bring to our customers with its sequencing capabilities enhancing our current DNA and RNA NGS panel offerings to the market. We are positioning ourselves at the cutting edge of NGS diagnostics and the investment in this new NGS platform will help Almac to continue to play a leading role within stratified medicine,” said Michael Sloan, global vice-president of Commercial Operations, Almac Diagnostic Services, in a press release.

Source: Almac