Product Showcase: End-to-end next-generation sequencing for clinical diagnostics

Fuelled by the rapid development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, it has become apparent that the technology is a key for the identification of genetic variants.

The identification of disease-relevant mutations by NGS has led to the discovery of a variety of novel drug targets, and triggered the development of a new generation of highly specific and effective anticancer drugs.

Compared with classical Sanger sequencing which is highly laborious and costly, NGS enables sequencing of whole genomes in a few days at a fraction of the cost. Due to its sequencing power, ability to multiplex samples via tagging with molecular barcodes, and reducing the time to result and cost, NGS has become a promising new technology for clinical diagnostics.

However, until recently, NGS was perceived as having only limited use for routine diagnostic applications due to the lack of automation and sample tracking, the generation of large amounts of data without clinical value, and the requirement of advanced molecular biology and bioinformatics skills.

The Vela Diagnostics’ Sentosa® NGS Workflow was specially developed for the needs of routine molecular diagnostics applications. The Sentosa® sequencing technology uses massively parallel sequencing powered by semiconductor chips. The isolation of nucleic acids from valuable and scarce sample material is automated and requires minimal amounts of sample input…