(ANN ARBOR, Mich. – November 28, 2018) Swift Biosciences today announced the availability of its eagerly anticipated Normalase™ Kit, a revolutionary enzymatic library normalization product that streamlines the cumbersome steps following next-generation sequencing (NGS) library preparation. Compared to conventional normalization, Swift Normalase saves cost on sequencing by reducing read depth variation within a pool down to a coefficient of variation <10%.
Normalase provides an efficient, robust, scalable and cost-effective means to significantly reduce and simplify the work necessary for accurately loading balanced libraries on sequencing instruments. The technology represents Swift’s first foray beyond library preparation, filling an unmet gap in the sequencing market to cleverly bridge the cumbersome labor that is required to optimize sequencing results.
“For routine sequencing labs interested in saving time and costs across sample NGS workflows, the Swift Normalase Kit is a game-changer for expediting library pooling and loading”, said Mida Pezeshkian, Ph.D., Swift’s Product Manager. “Normalase is quant-free, bead-free, and allows bulk processing to save you time and obtain more evenly balanced sequencing data.”
Today, prior to sequencing, NGS library normalization requires numerous pipetting steps, calculation of sample-specific volumes and dilutions, purchase of quantification consumables and instrumentation, and finally analysis of quantification data to dilute and pool libraries to appropriate concentrations. Normalase condenses all of these pain points down to a simple, 2-step workflow with uniform sample processing by cutting out the need for conventional library quantification and normalization.
The first step of Normalase replaces standard library amplification primers with Normalase primers to ‘condition’ the libraries, which is followed by two 15-minute incubations to normalize all libraries to 4 nM. Because of the unique workflow, Normalase also mitigates index hopping for libraries sequenced on patterned flow cells.
The first Swift Normalase Kit available is compatible with many workflows, such as those produced by Swift’s own 2S Plus and 2S Turbo Flexible kits, as well as libraries from Illumina and Roche/Kapa, with the following features:
- Libraries with full-length indexed adapters
- Libraries with an amplified yield of 12 nM or higher (20 µL volume)
- Libraries prepared for direct sequencing (i.e., whole genome, whole transcriptome)
- Target enriched, post-hybridization libraries with indexed adapters
Swift also plans in the near future to release versions of the Normalase product that will support PCR-free libraries, pre-hybridization capture and workflows that require indexing PCR primers to complete library construction.