WaferGen Bio-systems Announces The Launch Of Exome Capture Solutions On Its Next Generation Sequencing Sample Preparation Platform Apollo 324

WaferGen Bio-systems, Inc. WGBS announced the launch of an automated solution for Agilent's SureSelectXT Target Enrichment workflow on the Apollo 324TM Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) sample preparation system. WaferGen responded to customers' unmet needs for a cost effective and flexible automated target capture solution. The Apollo 324TM protocols were designed to enable researchers to utilize Agilent's SureSelectXT Reagent Kits with a decreased turnaround time, thereby improving throughput with the expanded flexibility to prepare a wide range of samples per run. This solution will be of great use to clinical CLIA labs, as well as clinical research institutions. "The bottleneck of implementing exome capture on a routine basis is that existing workflows are long and tedious and it can be challenging to get reproducible results. We participated in WaferGen's Apollo 324 Early Access Program for automating SureSelect exome capture and showed that WaferGen's platform massively reduced our hands-on time and gave us the flexibility to prepare any number of samples per run with consistent results. With the Apollo 324, we can now offer a full scale exome service to our customers," stated Dr. Jason Steel from The Center for Personalized Diagnostics at Arizona State University. As previously announced, technical data will be presented at the American Society for Human Genetics 2014 Annual Meeting in San Diego in a paper titled "Automation of hybridization based capture technologies on the Apollo 324 NGS Library Prep System" on Tuesday, October 21, 2:00 – 3:00 pm. The Apollo 324TM NGS Library Prep System is a compact and flexible system that enables rapid and full walk-away automation of a wide variety of Next Generation Sequencing applications. WaferGen also offers complete solutions with PrepXTM reagent kits that are designed specifically for ease-of-use with Apollo 324TM automated protocols. PrepXTM reagents are color-coded and prealiquotted with the necessary volume per reaction, significantly reducing hands-on time and operator error. WaferGen continues to develop new applications for Apollo 324TM, including second generation whole exome solutions and plans to launch additional solutions in the first quarter of 2015.