MWG Biotech and Eurofins upgrade genome sequencer

Edited by the Laboratorytalk editorial team May 21, 2009

MWG Biotech AG and Eurofins Medigenomix have upgraded their Genome Sequencer (GS) 20 from Roche to the next-generation Genome Sequencer FLX system.

The companies' sequencing platform is based on the combination of Sanger sequencing and sequencing-by-synthesis technology, supported by customised bioinformatics, which allows them to sequence and compare bacterial genomes in a couple of days.

Although the GS 20 system delivers 200.000 sequence reads with an average read length of 100 - 120 base pairs in a single run, the next generation GS FLX system increases the throughput fivefold.

It allows the two companies to sequence 400.000 reads with an average read length of 220 - 250 base pairs, generating 100-million base-pairs in only 7.5 hours and with higher accuracy per individual read and at the consensus level.