Illumina Launches mRNA-Seq on the Genome Analyzer
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Illumina, Inc. has announced the broad availability of mRNA-Seq, a new product for full-length, complementary DNA (cDNA) sequencing on the Genome Analyzer.
In contrast to tiling and exon arrays, researchers can use mRNA-Seq to obtain a more in-depth, comprehensive view of the transcriptome, revealing aspects previously unseen using array-based or expression sequence tag (EST) technologies.
Beta testing for mRNA-Seq was carried out at multiple research facilities, including Andy Fire's Lab at the Stanford University School of Medicine and James Hadfield's lab at Cancer Research UK's - Cambridge Research Institute (CRI). "The mRNA-Seq protocols from Illumina have proven to be robust and simple to perform," said James Hadfield, "We will be using this technology at CRI to increase our understanding of cancer biology. The current technology has provided us with our first detailed look at differential splicing on a genome wide scale."
mRNA-Seq, powered by Illumina's sequencing technology and the Genome Analyzer, provides a robust discovery tool for the profiling of mRNA. mRNA-Seq delivers unbiased and unparalleled information about the transcriptome because it does not require design of probes or primers.
Researchers can use this platform to generate a full sequence from any poly-A tailed RNA to discover and profile novel transcripts, novel isoforms, alternative splice sites, rare transcripts, and cSNPs (coding region single nucleotide polymorphisms) in one experiment.
To support the large quantities of data generated using mRNA-Seq, Illumina will launch a primary data analysis software program – GenomeStudio™. This program enables the simultaneous analysis of over 100 million sequence reads, in addition to microarray data, all within the same project workflow paradigm. This software offers researchers a range of tools to analyze their genomics data and visualize results of exon abundance, genes and splice junctions against a reference genome.
GenomeStudio offers application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable data integration with third party software providers for more advanced downstream analysis. The company expects to make this software broadly available in November 2008.
