Besides hearing about some of the latest omics research from both academia and industry, the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) is also the perfect opportunity to learn about some of the latest technologies and partnerships. And this year’s meeting is no exception.
In the lead up to the convening, which will run from October 14-18 in Boston, MA, SPT Labtech, a developer of laboratory automation and liquid handling solutions, and Agilent, a developer of analytical and clinical laboratory technologies, announced the availability of automated target enrichment protocols on SPT Labtech’s firefly®+ platform.
These protocols support researchers using Agilent’s SureSelect Max DNA Library Prep kits, which are optimized for a range of inputs and sample types including FFPE and genomic DNA. Available immediately to all firefly+ users on the firefly community cloud, the protocols enable users to prepare libraries with Agilent’s Library Prep and Target Enrichment panels for genomic workflows in the context of clinical research, oncology, and precision medicine.
Separately, lab automation provider Opentrons and BD announced a multi-year collaboration that integrates Opentrons’ robotic liquid-handling capabilities into BD’s single-cell multiomics instruments to automate critical experimental steps in disease research and drug development. Under the terms of the partnership, the companies will integrate the BD Rhapsody™ System with the Opentrons Flex® platform. They will develop verified protocols that let scientists run automated workflows with their single-cell multiomics experiments as well as a module for the Rhapsody system that automates next-generation sequencing library prep and cell capture.
The collaborators plan to offer early access opportunities for the combined offering to interested labs in the near future.
