Pharmacy

454 Life Sciences, a Roche Company, recently declared the launch and immediate availability   of the new GS FLX+ System, an instrument capable of generating extra-long sequencing reads upto 1,000 bp in length. This new level of performance presents a major milestone in the life science's industry, making it the first high-throughput sequencing technology to deliver millions of bases from reads with accuracy and lengths that are comparable to Sanger-based methods. The improvements in read length also translate to a 50 per cent increase in total throughput, aiding in overall run economics and further reducing the cost of large genomic projects.

 The new GS FLX+ System is available as an instrument or as an on-site upgrade to GS FIX Instrument and features a redesigned reagent compartment to accommodate the larger reagent volume of the new GS FLX Titanium Sequencing Kit XL+. An increase in the number of sequencing flow cycles, along with chemistry and software optimization, enable read lengths up to 1,000 bp (700 bp mode).

"Our team has worked tirelessly to drive forward the performance of our system and achieve true Sanger-like read lengths and accuracy," said Christopher McLeod, President  & CEO, 454 Life Sciences.