New PCR Reagent Kit Accelerates Next-Generation Sequencing

Available exclusively in the UK from Cambio, the new HaloPlex™ Target Enrichment Kit revolutionises next-generation sequencing, reducing costs and saving up to 80 per cent in sample preparation time compared to many other kits.

HaloPlex Target Enrichment Kit introduces a dramatically improved PCR technology that enables millions of PCR reactions in a single tube. Following fragmentation using specifically selected restriction endonucleases, and denaturing of the DNA sample, a Selector Probe library is added. Each probe, designed to hybridize to both ends of a targeted DNA restriction fragment, guides the targeted fragments to form circular DNA molecules. Only circular DNA targets are amplified, ready for sequencing using any next-generation procedure, and results are highly reproducible.

According to Dr Naeem Ahmed, Cambio’s technical support specialist, ‘This new Halo Genomics kit provides a “lab-in-a-tube” solution which greatly simplifies PCR workflow, with no need for expensive instrumentation or automation. With next-generation nano scale PCR, reactions are parallelised at the molecular level so that no separate time-consuming library preparation stage is required. For a project targeting 100 genes in 1000 samples, HaloPlex Target Enrichment Kit reduces the total sample preparation time by as much as 80 per cent. Genomic regions of interest are enriched at the same time as the introduction of sample barcoding and sequence motifs.’

Current applications demonstrating the value of the HaloPlex PCR reagent kit for high performance targeted resequencing include studies of candidate genes involved in rare inherited diseases, pathway sequencing in matched tumour and normal samples, and clinical sequencing for BRCA gene assays.