New England Biolabs Artic Products for SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing

New England Biolabs has launched three kits based on the Artic Network protocols for multiplexed amplicon-based sequencing of viral RNA: NEBNext Artic SARS-CoV-2 Library Prep Kit and NEBNext ARTIC SARS-CoV-2 FS Library Prep Kit, both for Illumina sequencing; and NEBNext Artic SARS-CoV-2 Companion Kit for Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing.

The Artic network is an international research consortium that has developed protocols for the epidemiological monitoring of viral genomes to provide insights into virus evolution and transmission. All three NEBNext Artic SARS-CoV-2 kits yield uniform, ample amplicons from gRNA across a wide copy number range, and use the same RT step for all inputs, NEB said. The two kits for Illumina sequencers provide options for library insert size and downstream sequencing parameters.