NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Pacific Biosciences has launched a certified service provider program and has also partnered with three informatics firms to provide data analysis on the RS II, the firm said today.
The CSP program is a global network of service providers that have been validated to provide sequencing services on the RS II system. The first certified providers are DNA Link, GATC Biotech, McGill University and Genome Québec Innovation Center, Takara Bio, Washington State University's Molecular Biology and Genomics Core, and the Arizona Genomics Institute.
According to DNA Link CTO Gun-Eui Lee, there is a high demand for PacBio sequencing in Korea and abroad. The firm now runs "more SMRT cells than flow cells or chips from any other sequencing platform," he said in a statement.
In addition, PacBio has partnered with informatics firms: DNAnexus, which provides cloud-based informatics and data management; Biosoft Integrators, which provides computational solutions with pre-installed SMRT Analysis software for users to work on a local compute environment; and Computomics, which offers expertise in de novo assembly, the Iso-Seq method, and gene annotation for plant genomics projects.
DNAnexus CEO Richard Daly said the company will "help medical institutions and researchers realize the true power of long-read sequencing and reference-quality, whole-genome assembly for discovering breakthrough treatments for disease."
"PacBio CSP certification provides a competitive advantage to service providers and helps ensure that their customers will receive the highest-quality genetic analysis services using PacBio technology," Kevin Corcoran, senior VP of market development for PacBio, said in a statement.