HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—Discovery Life Sciences, Inc. has announced the expansion of their HudsonAlpha Discovery PacBio Center of Excellence, with the purchase of additional Sequel II systems. These new systems, which are powered by single molecule, real-time (SMRT) sequencing technology, produce highly accurate long reads known as HiFi reads. The Sequel II systems also support the latest HiFi sequencing applications from Pacific Biosciences (PacBio).
HudsonAlpha Discovery is Discovery Life Science’s sequencing and bioinformatics laboratory. It provides a suite of long-read, short-read and strand-specific sequencing technologies — including PacBio, Illumina NovaSeq, 10x Genomic, Chromium and Oxford Nanopore platforms, optical mapping and variant discovery algorithms.
“HudsonAlpha Discovery is uniquely positioned to support the growing need for large-scale long read sequencing in cancer, drug, and diagnostic research and development,” said Shawn Levy, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Discovery Life Sciences. “Our expertise is centered on high-throughput sequencing, workflow optimization and developing cutting-edge analytical pipelines in support of global, large-scale clinical trial programs.”
The investment reportedly makes Discovery one of the largest commercial providers of long read next generation sequencing services for research, development and clinical trial applications. The company has capacity and proven experience for large-scale projects, including the National Institute of Health’s All of Us research program.
The advantages of long-read sequencing are driving the increased adoption of long read sequencing technologies, especially in the oncology field. In order to meet the rising demand with scaled, affordable solutions, Discovery now delivers expanded large-scale long read genomic sequencing services that are integrated with the company’s comprehensive platform. Services include biospecimen solutions, short read sequencing, nucleic acid isolation, immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry services.
“PacBio is pleased to support HudsonAlpha Discovery, a leading sequencing service provider, in expanding their HiFi sequencing capacity to meet the growing demand for long-read sequencing projects. We are looking forward to further expanding our collaboration with Discovery to support a full suite of HiFi sequencing applications and genetic analysis methods to help advance research relating to the diagnosis and treatment of disease, including cancer,” stated Chris Siepert, vice president of Sales and Support for the Americas and Europe at PacBio.
