BGI Selects Agilent Technologies to Streamline Next-Generation Sequencing Workflow

BGI selected Agilent for its comprehensive portfolio of research products to address bottlenecks in the next-generation sequencing workflow. BGI will use Agilent's SureSelect Target Enrichment System, Agilent's Bravo Automated Liquid Handling Platform and Agilent's 2100 Bioanalyzer in its research.

As one of the world's largest genome centers and sequencing facilities, we are aiming to streamline our genomics platform with minimal manual interference, said Xiuqing Zhang, vice president of BGI. We are excited that Agilent can meet our requirements to the greatest extent. The technology platforms supplied by Agilent will provide us with more options to better serve our collaborators doing exome sequencing.

BGI gained international prominence by participating in the international Human Genome Project and contributing one percent of the human genome. As a sequencing powerhouse, BGI has successfully completed the first Asian diploid genome using its unique strength in large-scale sequencing and bioinformatics analysis.

BGI is one of the preeminent sequencing research facilities in the world and we are extremely pleased that they have selected Agilent as their technology partner to streamline their workflow, said Gustavo Salem, Agilent vice president and general manager, Biological Systems Division. Used in any combination, our next-generation sequencing workflow tools enable life science researchers to achieve significant gains in the efficiency and reach of their sequencing studies.

Agilent's SureSelect system will allow us to selectively enrich the genomic loci of interest and help us in future human genetic studies, particularly on the cancer genome projects, said Saturn Tian, vice president of the Genomics and Sequencing Platforms at BGI. Tian led a team of scientists who worked in close collaboration with Agilent's China Life Science Group and Agilent R&D throughout the system testing and validating phase.

Agilent's SureSelect Target Enrichment System enables researchers to sequence only the genomic regions of interest, improving experimental efficiency by orders of magnitude. Based on an extremely efficient hybrid selection technique, the in-solution SureSelect Target Enrichment System is highly scalable and ideal for both small to large sequencing projects.

The Agilent Bravo Automatic Liquid Handler Platform delivers fast, precise and hands-off solutions to enhance throughput and efficiency. The Bravo Automated Liquid Handling Platform is the fastest and most versatile small footprint liquid-handling system available. Easily programmed for next-generation sequencing sample preparation, the Bravo platform is designed to accelerate cycle times, reduce variability and improve efficiency on any scale.

The 2100 Bioanalyzer is Agilent's highly successful microfluidics-based platform for sizing, quantification and quality control of DNA, RNA, proteins and cells on a single platform. The 2100 Bioanalyzer quickly and easily checks the quality of the genomic DNA library to ensure yield, fragment size and homogeneity of fragment size, before moving to the target enrichment steps or directly to sequencing. With the High Sensitivity DNA Kit, DNA libraries derived from just a few amplification cycles can easily be analyzed, reducing amplification bias and improving the quality of sequencing data.