Illumina has officially announced a series of roadmap innovations to put together what would be the industry’s largest portfolio of omics solutions and sequencing applications.
According to certain reports, this solutions’ assortment, at launch, covers subjects like genomics, spatial transcriptomics, single cell analysis, CRISPR technologies, epigenetics, and data analytics. The idea here is to empower researchers, in each of these fields, to achieve breakthrough insights around various diseases’ instigators.
More on that would reveal how these omics innovations tread up a long distance to actually reset industry standards for scale, accuracy, and reliability. This they are largely able to do with Illumina’s powerful sequencers, known for their unmatched quality, consistency, and accuracy.
Talk about Illumina’s newly-introduced solutions on a slightly deeper level, we begin from constellation mapped reads that arrive on the scene bearing an ability to unlock new possibilities in rare disease detection. We get to say so because the stated technology is specifically designed to enhance understanding of the genome and streamline whole-genome workflows, while simultaneously eliminating traditional library prep.
Markedly enough, early applications have already shown to scale up mapping of challenging genomic regions, ultra-long phasing, and improved detection of large structural rearrangements. As for the future, these advances will come together to support faster and more comprehensive disease detection.
Next up, we must get into a new single-cell solution, which is geared towards facilitating CRISPR research. Going by the available details, this single-cell solution can capture critical biological insight across a broad range of research fields, including oncology, immunology, and drug target discovery.
Such a technology should deliver a mechanism of action for drugs and clinical research on therapeutic treatments, across complex genetic diseases, at the single-cell level. In case that wasn’t enough, the solution will also be used in a partnership Broad Clinical Labs, a partnership aimed at rapidly scaling single-cell solutions and enabling a 5 billion single-cell atlas ecosystem within three years.
Among other things, we ought to mention that Illumina’s single-cell solution will launch by the end of 2025 alongside three new kit formats that are compatible with 10,000, 100,000, and 1 million cells per sample. The whole setup will help conduct targeted studies with 100 guide RNA (gRNA) sequences to full genome-scale discovery using over 10,000 gRNAs per experiment.
Another detail worth a mention here is rooted in Illumina’s 5-base solution meant for methylation analysis and variant calling powers accuracy of genetic and epigenetic data. This particular solution basically makes it possible for simultaneous genetic variant and methylation detection to arrive in a single assay.
Given that DNA methylation can impacts how and when genes are expressed, the very ability to detect and analyze DNA methylation will improve researchers’ understanding of how its patterns influence biological processes like development, cell differentiation, tumor progression, and environmental exposures.
The overarching objective here is to help researchers identify potential biomarkers for detection, diagnosis, and treatment strategies.
To understand the significance of such a development, we must take into account the current industry barriers to adoption of 5-base solutions that include cost, usability, and lack of reliable analytics solutions. Fortunately, Illumina’s solution will provide 5-base insights into the genome, cell-free DNA, or targeted assays through a single library preparation, sequencing, and analysis run to allow deeper understanding of the genome at a fraction of the usual cost.
Joining that would be the company’s new spatial transcriptomics technology, which delivers cellular resolution across millions of cells per slide to innovate research and discovery efforts across the board. The technology is also decked up with a capture area nine times larger than existing technologies, and with four times greater resolution.
In this context, too, the Broad Institute and Illumina will collaborate on a groundbreaking Spatial Flagship Project to leverage the latter’s new spatial technology and demonstrate the transformative potential of large-scale spatial datasets.
“Illumina is the backbone of innovation for our industry, and we’re bringing disruptive, new solutions at a scale that only Illumina can deliver,” said Jacob Thaysen, CEO of Illumina. “Illumina has paved the way for genomic breakthroughs, and now we are committed to accelerating advances on all frontiers of multiomics.”
