News

A new Next Generation Sequencing device has arrived at the Keylab for Genomics & Bioinformatics! 

The Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platform at Keylabs Genomic & Bioinformatics has been expanded to include the MiSeq-i100, a latest-generation NGS device, and is available for analyses from research projects at the University of Bayreuth. The MiSeq-i100 from Illumina is a benchtop format NGS device and is particularly suitable for environmental and biodiversity research projects as well as for questions in the special research area of microplastics.

The MiSeq-i100 significantly expands the existing analysis capacity of its predecessor, the iSeq-i100, which has been in use in the Keylab since 2018, because it enables longer read lengths and higher sequence accuracy thanks to Illumina's latest XLEAP SBS chemistry. The new device can generate sequence lengths of up to 500 bp in single or paired-end mode. This opens up new applications, especially in the targeted loci sequencing of longer genomic regions, which could not be performed with previous devices. Complete sequencing of longer metabarcoding loci from fungi, protists, microfauna, and flora is now also possible with much greater accuracy. These areas of application are particularly well suited to the focus of ecology and environmental sciences at our university.

At the same time, with a capacity of up to 25 million reads at read lengths of 100bp to 500bp, the MiSeq-i100 can also be used for basic molecular genetic research projects, such as gene panels and miRNA/small RNAs, questions relating to non-coding RNAs, gene expression regulation, or genotyping.

The MiSeq i100 device was procured with infrastructure funds from CRC 1357 “Microplastics” to support the 'development of priority areas and structural development at the applicant university' (DFG Collaborative Research Centers). “We are very pleased that we were able to procure the MiSeq i100 device with infrastructure funds from SFB 1357 Microplastics for the Keylab Genomics & Bioinformatics, and that it is now available to all established and young researchers throughout the University of Bayreuth,” says Christian Laforsch, spokesperson for CRC 1357 Microplastics. “The availability of such devices with a wide range of applications in a Keylab offers unique opportunities to operate them for the benefit of many researchers from different disciplines in the life sciences, because their procurement costs are too expensive for a single laboratory on the one hand, and too low for a DFG large equipment application on the other,” says PD Dr. Alfons Weig, head of the Keylab Genomic Analysis & Bioinformatics at the University of Bayreuth.

The operation of the new device in the Keylab Genomic Analysis & Bioinformatics not only ensures the professional use of the NGS devices, but also supports the preliminary project planning and subsequent bioinformatic evaluation of the analysis data at the University of Bayreuth.

If you have any further questions, please contact the head of the Keylab Genomic Analysis & Bioinformatics, PD Dr. Alfons Weig.

More information of the MiSeq-i100 NGS device can be found here!