This on-demand webinar, recorded June 23, demonstrates how automated liquid handling workstations can reduce bottlenecks in library preparation for next-generation sequencing, enabling scientific advances in genomics research that were not possible five years ago. 

Advances in NGS tools have led to greatly reduced sequencing costs and widespread adaption of the technology, but manual library prep methods can be laboriously intensive and prone to errors, while increasing the cost and timeline of the workflow. These tasks can now be robotically performed, decreasing hands-on labor and sample-to-sample variance while reducing tracking errors. This has ultimately led to increased productivity and better quality data. 

This webinar will discuss next-generation applications that use automation to reduce bottlenecks in NGS library generation and informatics processing. 

Our first panelist, Dan Stover, Automation Program Manager for Kapa Biosystems, provides an overview of Kapa's HyperPlus kit, which streamlines the NGS workflow by carrying out fragmentation and library preparation in a single tube. The solution combines enzymatic fragmentation with the speed and convenience of tagmentation-based workflows, coupling the benefits of liquid handling with NGS library preparation robustness. 

Liberating researchers from the repetitive processes of NGS library preparation with standardized liquid-handling workstations has allowed for novel applications and data-mining of vast sequencing data sets. In line with this, our second panelist, Marc W. Allard, Senior Biomedical Research Services Officer with the Food and Drug Administration, presents the open-access genomic reference database GenomeTrakr. GenomeTrakr is a new approach to tracking pathogen sources that uses DNA sequence information from a network of laboratories across the country that collect samples from foodborne outbreaks, contaminated food products, and environmental sources. GenomeTrakr can be used to develop new rapid methods and culture-independent tests. Dr. Allard discusses data acquisition, assembly, analysis, and storage, as well that the application and interpretation of the data. 

With standardized hardware configurations, open-platform reagent compatibility, and pre-validated protocols, PerkinElmer NGS workstations can provide the flexibility and quality control to support novel approaches and chemistries within the NGS process.