Paragon Genomics CleanPlex Emerging Variant Add-on V2

Paragon Genomics has launched the CleanPlex Emerging Variant Add-on V2 (EVAv2) for its CleanPlex SARS-CoV-2 Research and Surveillance Panels for viral detection, mutation analysis, variant tracking, and epidemiological research. The add-on provides optimized coverage for new and emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, Paragon said. It provides additional confidence in variant calling and includes added primers for enhanced coverage of critical variants, such as Alpha, Beta, Delta, Mu, and Omicron. EVAv2 has also been confirmed in silico to cover all defining and characteristic mutations of the sub-lineages of Omicron: BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3. The add-on has been designed for ease of use with existing CleanPlex SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequencing panels and can be directly added to existing CleanPLex workflows with minimal time and effort, the company said. In general, CleanPlex uses a proprietary multiplex PCR background cleaning chemistry to effectively remove non-specific PCR products, improving target enrichment performance and efficient use of sequencing reads.