Illumina and Agilent Technologies to Co-Market Targeted Resequencing Solution

Illumina, Inc. and Agilent Technologies today announced they have entered into a non-exclusive co-marketing agreement to support a new, scalable solution for researchers conducting targeted resequencing studies. The Agilent SureSelect Target Enrichment System, optimized for Illumina’s widely-adopted next-generation sequencing platform, the Genome Analyzer, provides researchers with a method for efficiently resequencing specific regions of interest in the genome. This cost-effective approach significantly simplifies the lab process while providing even coverage and high alignment rates. When combined with Illumina’s Genome Analyzer, the Agilent SureSelect Target Enrichment System allows researchers to conduct studies that otherwise would not be feasible.

Illumina and Agilent are highlighting the benefits of their combined solution at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) meeting this week in Denver, Colorado. The new research protocol enables scientists to interrogate multiple regions of interest in order to detect rare mutations, such as those commonly found in cancer, while taking advantage of low sample input requirements. Targeted resequencing also enables scientists to sequence areas identified through genome-wide association studies in addition to sequencing candidate genes and candidate regions.

Chad Nusbaum, Co-director of the Genome Sequencing and Analysis program at MIT’s Broad Institute, described the hybrid selection technique utilized by Agilent’s SureSelect technology in the February 2009 issue of Nature Biotechnology. “We have developed a hybrid-selection method for enriching specific subsets of a genome that is flexible, scalable, and efficient. Targeting based on hybrid selection may be potentially useful for a variety of applications where traditional single-plex PCR is either too costly or too specific. Examples are enrichment of precious ancient DNA that is heavily contaminated with unwanted DNA, deep sequencing of viral populations in clinical samples, or metagenomics analyses of environmental or medical specimens.”

“A partnership with Agilent underscores our commitment to build upon the utility of our next-generation sequencing technology, helping researchers plan and execute studies at a scale never before possible,” said Jay Flatley, President and CEO of Illumina. “We continue to expand our portfolio of solutions with powerful tools for studying genetic variation. This solution provides the research community with a cost-effective, automation-friendly, and flexible approach to targeted resequencing for a wide variety of applications.”

“The Agilent SureSelect Target Enrichment System requires only standard equipment already in the next-generation sequencing workflow,” said Nick Roelofs, Ph.D., Agilent’s Vice President and General Manager, Life Science Solutions Unit. “The SureSelect platform draws upon Agilent’s distinctive ability to accurately and reliably custom-manufacture oligos greater than 100 base pairs, resulting in highly specific capture of genome variance. When combined with Illumina’s Genome Analyzer, researchers can design their own experiments and take advantage of Illumina’s long reads to achieve timely, reproducible results while reducing cost and increasing robustness. The SureSelect System enables scientists to easily and efficiently design custom content through eArray probe design and incorporate automation for scalability and cost efficiencies.”