Fluidigm has released 5-kilobase and 10-kilobase long-range PCR protocols for its Access Array system, which allows users to amplify up to 48 samples per array for use in targeted resequencing.
The company said that the new protocols offer the capability to enrich up to 240 kb per sample and 11.5 megabases per array, or 480 kb and 23 Mb per array, respectively, from 48 samples at a time.
The Access Array system is compatible with a number of next-generation sequencing platforms, including the Roche 454 FLX, Illumina Genome Analyzer II, and Life Technologies SOLiD 4.
The company said that the system uses as little as two microliters of PCR master mix per 48 amplicons and that the entire sample-prep workflow requires three pipette steps per 48 amplicons. This enables the enrichment of up to 23 Mb per array in as little as four hours and for less than $7 per sample, Fluidigm said.
Release 46 of COSMIC, the Catalog of Somatic Mutations in Cancer, is available from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute here.
The release includes the second full-genome resequencing study from the Sanger's Cancer Genome Project; the curation of a candidate gene screen of glioblastomas published in Science in 2008; and data from the sequencing of a lung cancer genome published in Nature in January.
COSMIC now includes data for 2,077,858 experiments, 451,972 samples, and 449,676 mutations. The new release also includes fusion mutations between seven new gene pairs, as well as updates on existing curated genes.
Galaxy, an open source, open access online bioinformatics platform developed by researchers at Penn State University, now offers a second-generation sequence mapping service.
Epigentek has launched its BisulFlash DNA Modification Kit, which it claims can convert unmethylated cytosine into uracil in around 30 minutes.
The converted DNA eluate can be obtained for use in mutagenically separated PCR, real time MS-PCR, methylation microarray, and methylation sequencing and pyrosequencing applications, the company said.