February 5, 2009: Agilent Technologies Inc. has introduced its SureSelect Target Enrichment System, a tool the company says greatly streamlines DNA-sequencing research by enabling scientists to sequence only genomic areas of interest with next-generation sequencing instrumentation.

The system will initially be available for the Illumina Genome Analyzer system and Agilent is in the process of optimizing the platform for the SOLiD System from Applied Biosystems, a division of Life Technologies Corp., Agilent announced in a news release.

“There have been amazing advances in next-generation sequencing in recent years, driving down the cost of whole genome sequencing dramatically,” Nick Roelofs, Agilent’s vice president and general manager for the Life Science Solutions Unit, said in the news release.

“We’ve succeeded in developing a front-end method for isolating complex subsets of genomes that greatly enhances the efficiency of next-generation sequencing technologies by focusing them on the areas most interesting to DNA researchers. Agilent’s new platform will significantly reduce sample complexity, allowing researchers to analyze a greater number of samples per study with fewer resources.”

Agilent’s new SureSelect Target Enrichment System removes a major bottleneck from next-generation DNA sequencing by enabling scientists to sequence only genomic areas of interest, exons for example. (Business Wire Photo)

Target Enrichment, also referred to as “targeted resequencing,” “genome partitioning,” or “DNA capture,” is useful when a researcher is only interested in sequencing a particular segment of the genome, just the translated part, for example. In this case, the Agilent SureSelect platform can be used to capture a subset of exons or other genome targets and wash away the rest of the genome prior to sequencing.

SureSelect replaces other labor-intensive methods of targeted re-sequencing such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques that are a major bottleneck in most next-generation sequencing workflows.