Back at JPM Element teased that they would be coming out with the VITARI, a benchtop sequencer capable of generating whole genomes for $100. This would best Illumina’s list price of $200 with the NovaSeq X and be in the range of Ultima’s $80 genome, but with a desktop machine that would be smaller and presumably cheaper and faster. With AGBT just around the corner, they’ve dropped some more details. Launching in the second half of 2026, it will sell for $689k - much cheaper than Illumina’s flagship, but on the high end for a desktop instrument. Still, who doesn’t want to save a few hundred thousand dollars?
The next question is about throughput. It will deliver up to 10B reads per run. Assuming that means 10B 2x150 reads, that’s about 30 genomes/run. But how long is a run? The press release doesn’t say, but I heard ~36 hours (a little disappointing, but unconfirmed the 36 hour runtime was confirmed in their webinar). If that’s true, it should be able to generate up to roughly 5,500 genomes per year.
So, a cheaper instrument that produces cheaper genomes without needing to boost throughput beyond the NovaSeq X. Not too shabby. But is it enough to move the needle? Does it fit with Element’s previous plan of moving more into spatial and multiomics? And how will it compare to Roche’s Axelios? The capital costs are roughly the same, but if the 36 hour runtime is correct, the throughput will be over an order of magnitude lower. My bet is it will have a lower cost per sample than Axelios (which, in turn, will be lower than the NovaSeq).
EDIT - a bit more information from their webinar this morning: There are two flow cells with 6 independent lanes each. Each flow cell can produce up to 5B reads.
After AGBT I plan on having a small “State of the Sequencing Market” series of posts, one of which will include more thoughts on how well this instrument will likely fit into the market. In the meantime, is anyone taking bets on which becomes broadly available first - the Axelios or the VITARI?
