Illumina SARS-CoV-2 Data Toolkit

Illumina has released a suite of data analysis tools and workflow functionality for researchers sequencing SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The toolkit helps detect and identify the viral genome sequence in samples and contribute findings to public databases directly from BaseSpace Sequence Hub. It includes new and updated DRAGEN functionality, including a new RNA pathogen detection pipeline, a metagenomics pipeline for outbreak surveillance, an SRA import app, and a GISAID sharing app. 

The research-use only toolkit is compatible with many Illumina workflows, including the respiratory virus target enrichment workflow.

Illumina is making the toolkit available to researchers worldwide for free until October 2020. Illumina is also offering a free one-year license to any researcher using its Clarity laboratory information management system for COVID-19 testing.