Berkeley Lights TCRseq Kit

Berkeley Lights has launched a T Cell Receptor Sequencing Kit (TCRseq Kit), which enables users of the company's Beacon and Lightning instruments to recover functionally validated T cell receptors from a cell sample with as few as 10,000 input cells. The kit enables Berkeley Lights platform users to first characterize T cell function using the company's Cell Therapy Development Suite and then sequence only the T cells that matter, therefore functionally replacing existing methodologies that require re-expressing hundreds of TCRs to identify rare sequences, the company said.

After performing a T cell functional assay on the Beacon or Lightning instrument, the user selects single human T cells of interest and exports them from the company's OptoSelect chip to a well plate. Using TCRseq Kit reagents, RNA from single T cells is recovered and V(D)J regions of the TCR alpha and beta chains are amplified. The resulting cDNA is ready for the user to index and sequence using sequencing platforms. The TCRseq Kit includes reagents and protocols for processing up to 192 single human T cells, Berkeley Lights said.