Pacific Biosciences has launched its PacBio RS II platform. Current customers can purchase an upgrade of their system, and installations are expected to begin in the second quarter. The new version doubles the throughput to 500 megabases per SMRT cell. Average read lengths are 5,000 bases with the longest reads above 20,000 bases. Both the company's C2 and XL chemistry can be used.
Cufflinks version 2.1.1 is now available here. The new release improves the accuracy, speed, and memory footprint of Cufflinks and Cuffdiff. Cuffdiff also now includes a statistical test.