February 5, 2021
seqWell announced the release of its plexWell Single Cell Rapid Kit, simplifying and accelerating the preparation of NGS libraries for single-cell RNA sequencing.
plexWell Single Cell Rapid is the first in a series of products in the single-cell analysis area and offers a comprehensive library prep solution employing technology that enables increased control, while minimizing bias and variation compared to other methods.
seqWell notes the kit introduces novel improvements to the Smart-seq2 method by combining cDNA synthesis and amplification, and reducing the QC and normalization burden by 75%, to achieve a single-day library prep workflow. This simplified approach can produce sequencing-ready, full-length transcriptome libraries from hundreds to thousands of sorted cells at a time. Unique features of plexWell technology, such as iterative barcoding and auto-normalization, create balanced library pools without the need for further sample or library normalization. The method has been optimized for low cDNA inputs to maintain library complexity, improve detection of low-abundance targets, and preserve variant and isoform information.
“We have tested the plexWell Rapid Kit on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), notoriously challenging for having a very low RNA content,” said Simone Picelli, Team Leader, Single-Cell Genomics Platform at Institute Ophthalmology Basel (IOB). “We were impressed by the sequencing QC metrics: very high number of detected genes, low number of ribosomal and mitochondrial reads, all with a very high percentage of reads uniquely mapping to exons.”
“We used the scRapid kit on different samples such as cell lines, human retinal organoids and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs),” Dr. Picelli continued. “The kit works well regardless of the source material, but it really shines when using it in challenging cells containing very little RNA such as the PBMCs.”
