Bio-Rad Launches New ddPCR Library Quantification Kit to Optimize Performance of Illumina NGS Platforms

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., has announced the availability of its new ddPCR library quantification kit for Illumina TruSeq sample preparation protocols. Used with Bio-Rad's QX100™ Droplet Digital™ PCR system, the new kit offers researchers a way to precisely and directly measure amplifiable library concentrations.

The TruSeq sample preparation method is the technique behind Illumina's MiSeq and HiSeq next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms. Using the ddPCR library quantification kit to quantify TruSeq DNA libraries maximizes the number of useable reads, enables consistent loading, and optimizes the utilization of every sequencing run. The resulting data provide additional measures of library quality not provided by other methods, including the percentage of nonamplifiable species such as adaptor dimers as well as the size range of library inserts.

Additional key benefits of the ddPCR library quantification kit include:
• Superior performance — reduces PCR bias due to sample partitioning during quantification
• Simple workflow — easily incorporated into the TruSeq library construction workflow
• Efficient utilization of sequencing runs — provides fluorescence amplitude data, a metric for library quality

Kits for other NGS platforms are also in development. Illumina, TruSeq, MiSeq, and HiSeq are trademarks of Illumina, Inc. Illumina is not affiliated with Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.