Life Technologies 5500xl SOLiD Sequencer

The Life Technologies 5500xl SOLiD Sequencer has been designed to deliver fast and accurate genomic data for cancer biology and genetic disease research.

Developed and manufactured with longstanding partner Hitachi High-Technologies, the 5500xl delivers on the promise of the SOLiD 4hq, which was first announced in January. Initial shipments of the 5500xl are planned for December 2010.

The 5500xl addresses the needs of translational researchers with its high accuracy and rapid throughput, making it a suitable sequencing instrument for deciphering the genetic code of cancer and paving the way for the future development of sequencing technologies for eventual use in clinical settings.

It enables high-quality basepair format data. The exact call chemistry (ECC) option enables single-read accuracy better than 99.99%. This high-accuracy data is essential for the detection of minor variants in heterogeneous samples, a critical area of importance in cancer research. Further, the data output is in standard base-pair format, allowing easier interface with third-party tertiary data analysis tools.

The rapid and scaleable platform uses a novel rapid-scan fluorescence detection system and will initially deliver 20 to 30 Gb/day of DNA sequence. Two high-quality human genomes, 24 whole exomes, or 12 whole transcriptomes can be processed in a single run. With high-density nano-bead technology planned for the second half of 2011, the system will deliver 30 to 45 Gb/day, increasing capacity to three or more genomes per run and enabling higher-coverage cancer genome sequencing.

The SOLiD Microfluidic FlowChip allows one to six independent lanes to be run with two FlowChips. For rapid turnaround time, a single lane can be completed in one day. The FlowChip uses very low volumes of sequencing reagents.

The benchtop instrument has an integrated monitor and desktop computer. It contains a robotic reagent delivery system to track usage and provide quality check points across the entire workflow, leaving little room for errors. Real-time data processing removes the need for a compute cluster and reduces the data footprint, speeding time to result and simplifying data handling.

Building off customer feedback, the SOLiD 4hq and SOLiD PI programs were combined to develop a single, robust, easy-to-use platform for all researchers.