Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Adopts NEBNext® reagents from New England Biolabs® for RNA-seq Library Preparation

IPSWICH, Mass., Aug. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome centers, and through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programs and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease. The Institute has one of the largest DNA sequencing facilities in the world, processing DNA, RNA and tissue samples.

"The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has recently re-evaluated its RNA-seq library preparation methods and has chosen to implement the NEBNext Ultra II Directional RNA Library Prep Kit," stated Mike Quail, Senior Staff Scientist, R & D Sequencing at the Sanger Institute. "Our previous RNA-seq library preparation required a minimum input of 500 ng total RNA, but the high efficiency of the NEBNext Ultra II kit has allowed us to reduce this to either 100 ng for a standard pipeline, or down to just 5 ng for a low input option, enabling RNA-seq to be carried out from just 5,000-10,000 cells."

"When processing a large number of samples, factors such as automation compatibility, workflow speed, input amount and library quality become critical for efficient and successful sequencing runs. Further, library preparation ideally needs to be achieved with minimal optimization," stated Fiona Stewart, Ph.D., NEBNext Product Portfolio Manager at NEB.

New England Biolabs, Inc. (NEB^®) aimed to address these challenges when developing their recently launched NEBNext Ultra^™ II RNA Library Prep kits for Illumina^® sequencing. "We know from many of our customers that RNA samples can be problematic for a variety of reasons. Library quality is often affected by low input amounts, RNA quality, and the presence of contaminants. Further, workflows must ideally be streamlined and optimized for a broad range of input amounts," continued Stewart. "We kept these needs in mind when developing the NEBNext Ultra II RNA Library Prep kits, and have been able to make dramatic improvements on all fronts. We are pleased that the Sanger Institute is having success with this kit for its samples and workflow needs, and look forward to working together."

With the NEBNext Ultra II kit, each step in the RNA library prep workflow has been optimized, resulting in streamlined, automatable workflows for a broad range of input amounts (5 ng – 1 µg). Kits are available for directional (strand-specific, using the "dUTP method") and non-directional library prep, and are compatible with poly(A) mRNA enrichment or rRNA depletion.

For more details about the NEBNext Ultra II Directional RNA Library Prep and the NEBNext Ultra II RNA Library Prep products, visit UltraIIRNA.com

New England Biolabs®, NEB® and NEBNext® are registered trademarks of New England Biolabs, Inc.
Ultra™ is a trademark of New England Biolabs, Inc.
Illumina® is a registered trademark of Illumina, Inc.

About New England Biolabs
Established in the mid 1970s, New England Biolabs, Inc. (NEB) is the industry leader in the discovery and production of enzymes for molecular biology applications and now offers the largest selection of recombinant and native enzymes for genomic research. NEB continues to expand its product offerings into areas related to PCR and qPCR, gene expression, sample preparation for next generation sequencing, synthetic biology, glycobiology, epigenetics and RNA analysis. Additionally, NEB is focused on strengthening alliances that enable new technologies to reach key market sectors, including molecular diagnostics development. New England Biolabs is a privately held company, headquartered in Ipswich, MA, and has extensive worldwide distribution through a network of exclusive distributors, agents and seven subsidiaries located in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore and the UK. For more information about New England Biolabs visit www.neb.com.

NEW ENGLAND BIOLABS®, NEB® and NEBNEXT® are registered trademarks of New England Biolabs, Inc.

SOURCE New England Biolabs

Related Links

http://www.neb.com