For a journal preprint appearing in the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, researchers at Nevada State Public Health Laboratory, the Washoe County Health District, Theiagen Genomics, and the University of Nevada share findings from an assessment of an automated Clear Labs Dx commercial sequencing approach for tracking SARS-CoV-2 variants. The team applied the automated sample prep, genome sequencing, and bioinformatics steps to clinical SARS-CoV-2 samples collected during the first 10 months of 2021, analyzing everything from the turnaround time needed to narrow in on a SARS-CoV-2 lineage to sequence accuracy in comparison with Illumina short-read or Oxford Nanopore sequencing results. "This system was used to augment surveillance for the state of Nevada and was found to offer significant impact to disease control investigation and to variant detection," the authors write, noting that "epidemiological data integrity is greatly improved when a multidisciplinary approach is used to consider both epidemiological and genetic data."