PacBio on Thursday announced the launch of its Multiplexed Arrays Sequencing (MAS-Seq) kit in a partnership with Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and 10x Genomics.
Leveraging 10x Genomics’ Single Cell Gene Expression technology, the kit enables long-read, single-cell RNA sequencing so that single-cell researchers can better identify and characterize novel isoforms, novel driver mutations, and cancer fusion genes. Such identification is particularly relevant in the fields of cancer and neurodegenerative disease research, PacBio said.
"Understanding cell heterogeneity at the isoform level is critical for basic and disease research,” Jeff Eidel, CCO at PacBio, noted in a statement.
PacBio added that it will release new SMRTLink software with the kit to support single-cell transcriptome analysis. The firm will begin shipping the new kit in early November.