The new sequencer we’ve been waiting for Chemistry X (er, XLEAP-SBS) is coming to the NovaSeq! 2.5 times more data (50B clusters, 2x150b reads)! Faster cycle times! Higher accuracy (I’ve seen both 2X and 3X). And a brand new running cost as low as $2/Gb. Yay! But it’s going to cost you $1.25M to get...
Single cell genomics completes the triumvirate of hot trends in genomics (the other two being liquid biopsies and spatial genomics). All three are driving a tremendous amount of demand for sequencing. There is a fairly broad range of companies that consider themselves to be “single cell”. Some focus solely on isolation of single (often rare)...
Back when Illumina first announced they were going to acquire GRAIL, the general feeling in the M&A field was that this wouldn’t trigger any antitrust issues. I was asked if I could think of any difficulties. I didn’t claim back then that I was an antitrust expert (and still don’t), but I did wonder if...
After a number of good suggestions, my list of spatial genomics platforms has grown to 18 (with four in the necropolis, mostly due to 10X Genomics acquisitions). [Edit: the list has now grown to 21 platforms.] There were a number of additional spatial protein platform suggestions, but many of these “high multiplexing” systems topped...
One of the hottest trends in NGS applications is that of spatial genomics - measuring nucleic acids and proteins while maintaining the XY (and sometimes Z) coordinates within the tissue sample. This is a very dynamic market with a variety of approaches with a lot of variability in terms of resolution, sampling method (explained below),...
Currently one of the most popular topics for my consultation calls is about the liquid biopsy market. The companies listed below are either offering or developing non-invasive (no solid tissue biopsies) diagnostic and screening methods. While “liquid biopsy” usually means “high complexity NGS cancer test from a blood sample” to most people, there are actually...
Sequencing Platform Companies Although Illumina is dominating next gen sequencing, there are several other sequencing platform companies on the market and several more with platforms in development (a trend that is likely to accelerate over the next few years). There is also a growing list of “former sequencing companies” in the NGS Necropolis. These lists...
GenapSys is the last company on my list presenting at JPMorgan Health this year, so they’re next on the list for updates. The rest (Oxford Nanopore, BGI, Roche/Genia/Stratos, Omniome, etc) can wait a bit, but I clearly need a deadline to get any writing done! 2020 Prediction Here's what I said: “I predict that the...
2020 started pretty rough for PacBio with the Illumina acquisition being called off (albeit with a nice $98 cushion). Then the pandemic hit, forcing them to shut down for a while. Finally, mid-summer the CEO and CFO announced their retirements. My guess is they were all in on the merger and didn’t want to be...
I like to procrastinate to the very last second, so here’s the initial entry of a review of my 2020 predictions and what I see for 2021. I’ll start off with Illumina because they’ll be presenting today at JPMorgan Health. I'll try to get to the others as quickly as I can. As far as...