November 3, 2020 -- Discovery Life Sciences said that it has expanded its HudsonAlpha Discovery PacBio Center of Excellence by purchasing additional Sequel II systems as part of its sequencing and bioinformatics laboratory.
Powered by single molecular, real-time (SMR) sequencing technology, these new systems produce long-read sequencing services -- what the firm calls HiFi reads, Discovery said. HiFi reads are a type of data produced using circular consensus sequencing (CCS), which produces base-level resolution and single-molecule read accuracy. It also supports the latest PacBio HiFi sequencing applications, according to the company.
The new equipment increases the center's long-read sequencing capabilities. Long-read sequencing improves variant detection for whole genome sequencing, comprehensively maps difficult genomic regions, identifies transcript isoforms, elucidates complex disease-causing elements such as repeat expansions and structural variants that short-read technologies miss, according to Discovery.
The firm claims that these new systems make Discovery one of the largest commercial providers of long-read sequencing services for research, development, and clinical trial applications.