Beckman Coulter Life Sciences has announced an extension of its partnership with New England BioLabs (NEB), providing automation for next-generation sequencing (NGS) sample preparation. Under the new agreement, Beckman Coulter will develop, distribute, and support automation for NEB’s NEBNext sample preparation reagent kits, while NEB provides technical expertise on the reagents, chemistry, and protocols.
“Beckman Coulter’s focus on providing our NGS customers [with] a top-notch portfolio of automated sample prep solutions makes a partnership with NEB, a world leading provider of quality reagent systems for molecular biology research, a natural fit,” says Alisa Jackson, senior marketing manager for automated genomics solutions at Beckman. “Our joint collaborations with scientific researchers have already led to the development of high-quality methods demonstrated to improve efficiency, throughput, and results for some of the most challenging sample inputs.”
Beckman Coulter will develop optimized methods for the NEBNext kits on its Biomek liquid handling platforms, with each solution involving a unique group of Biomek methods to address a specific kit protocol. To improve overall workflows, methods are also included that automate Beckman Coulter’s AMPure XP kit for DNA purification, the SPRIselect kit for high-throughput DNA size selection, and the qPCR setup and normalization processes.
“We are delighted to have formed this productive partnership with Beckman Coulter Life Sciences,” says Fiona Stewart, product marketing manager for NGS at NEB. “With fast, streamlined workflows requiring fewer components and fewer steps, the NEBNext kits are ideally suited for automation. In combination with Beckman’s trusted automation solutions, NEBNext reagents enable robust performance, even with low input amounts and challenging samples.”
The first collection of automated NEBNext methods were developed on the NGS configurations of the Biomek 4000 and the Biomek FXP Dual Arm Multi 96 and Span 8 platforms in collaboration with scientists from several institutions, including the genomics and molecular biology shared resource (GMBSR) at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center. The methods create up to 96 sequence-ready libraries that generate quality results on the Illumina and Ion Torrent sequencing platforms.
“By automating the NEBNext Library Preparation method on the Biomek 4000, we were able to generate more reproducible libraries compared to those prepared manually, our labor costs were reduced, and we were able to offer a faster turnaround time to customers performing NGS projects through our core facility,” says Joanna Hamilton, PhD, codirector of the GMBSR, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center.
NEBNext methods currently available include the UltraDirectional RNA, Ultra DNA (including for ChIP-Seq) for Illumina NGS, and Fast DNA Fragmentation and Library Prep for Ion Torrent. Other methods, including ribosomal RNA depletion and the Small RNA reagent kits, are expected to follow later in the year. For more information, visit New England BioLabs and Beckman Coulter Life Sciences.
