Illumina’s New MiSeq i100 Series a Modest Update to Benchtop NGS

Illumina’s just announced the MiSeq i100 Series, a significant update to the company’s MiSeq series bench-top sequencers with a reduction in size and improvements in speed, ease of use, and sustainability.

Illumina the leader in sequencing-by-synthesis method expands its lineup of next-generation sequencers with the MiSeq i100 Series, the ‘100’ stands for the new 100M flow cell that is responsible for the speed gain. This bring the MiSeq i100 closer to the NextSeq 500 system. According to Illumina, its team worked on multiple issues faced by researchers and aimed at streamlining every NGS workflow; from library preparation, sustainability, ease-of-use, size, all the way to analysis. Looks like the new sequencer does just that by making it much easier, faster, and environmentally friendly to sequence genomes.

Sequential Workflows Made Fast & Easy : At What Cost?

The MiSeq i100 Series is designed so that it can be easily used by both novices and experts alike with a claimed prep time of 20 minutes. The workflow can be made more efficient due to the integrated cartridge system as it simplifies library loading and eliminates the necessity of washes between runs. It is to be seen if these integrated cartridges will help in reducing overall cost of sequencing or end up becoming elephants of the laboratory. Based on past experience or with Illumina’s proprietary cartridges is that this will be out of bounds for most laboratories. However the upside of the new cartridge based consumables is that they can be shipped and stored ate room-temperature.

Same Day Results with XLEAP-SBS Chemistry

At the core of the MiSeq i100 Series is the state-of-the-art XLEAP-SBS chemistry, enabling faster sequencing with very high-quality data output. The onboard denaturation and clustering capabilities within the system reduce the sequencing time, therefore the turnaround is rapid for high-priority applications. Most of the promoted time savings are due to MiSeq i100 Plus’s 100M flow cell which is set to be launched next year, this will expand the capacity to sequence and also improve the throughput.

Complete Workflow Integration: End-to-End NGS Solutions

Illumina’s MiSeq i100 Series offers full NGS solutions, covering all workflow entirely from:

• Library Preparation : The library loading said to take three easy steps in less than 20 minutes.
• Sequencing: XLEAP-SBS chemistry and onboard processes for denaturation and clustering allow producing high-quality data much faster than traditional methods.
• Data Analysis: Onboard and cloud available pre-configured DRAGEN pipelines return secondary analysis results in two hours or less for most applications.
• Results Interpretation: Tertiary analysis solutions in the BaseSpace Sequence Hub and Illumina Connected Analytics provide actionable insights, so researchers can make impacts.

Trusted Technology Powered by Ten Years of Innovation

With more than 160,000 citations in peer-reviewed publications, Illumina’s NGS systems are the market leader. The MiSeq i100 Series has been designed with this legacy of dependability by bringing the huge experience of Illumina in NGS technology with tremendous advancements to remain a leader in genomics. Labs will enjoy the same dependable performance they are accustomed to combined with added speed and simplicity.

Pros	Cons
Fastest in its Category: 15.5 hr Run time with the 100 well flow cell Low Error Rates Familiarity and Ease of Use Room Temperature Cartridges	Expensive Catridges: Higher Cost per read Amplicon sequencing is still an issue carried over from the MiSeq line

Wide Use Cases

As the demand for fast and accurate genomics data increases, research and clinical applications will increasingly depend on the MiSeq i100 Series. Some clear uses of MiSeq i100 series are in diagnostic and clinical labs for rapid pathogen discovery and in forensic labs, among others.

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