Basel-headquartered Roche has announced the launch of the SeqCap RNA Target Enrichment System for RNA-Seq applications. This offering includes a comprehensive lncRNA (long non-coding RNA) design and a full range of custom enrichment offerings. This system was designed to enable researchers to achieve significantly enhanced discovery power and targeting efficiency of RNA-Seq. Researchers in next-generation sequencing are increasingly studying RNA to more deeply understand transcript changes in order to identify potential genetic drivers for diseases.

RNA-Seq has been used increasingly for discovery of novel transcripts, splicing variants, exons and genes. However, the limited sensitivity to low-abundance transcripts, due to the fact that the majority of the RNA-Seq reads are from a small number of highly expressed genes, has been keeping researchers from achieving their research goals effectively.  The SeqCap RNA System, developed in collaboration with key opinion leaders, dramatically increases RNA-Seq’s sensitivity to low-abundance transcripts without introducing any systematic bias.

“RNA-Seq has changed the way we look at the transcriptome, identifying many new coding and noncoding RNAs. However, it has become obvious that even the deepest RNAseq is insufficient to deal with the sheer size and complexity of the transcriptome,” said Professor John Mattick, executive director, the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. “We have been studying the human and mouse transcriptomes with a targeted approach that offers advanced sequencing depth using Roche NimbleGen's technology. It is pleasing that the new SeqCap RNA system is now available to benefit more researchers.”

With its targeting function, the SeqCap RNA System is also suitable for researchers who would like to focus on a subset of genes or transcripts. This could replace some existing methods, such as highly multiplexing qRT-PCR, for RNA testing on gene panels.

“This is another step towards our goal of providing a complete solution to basic, translational and clinical researchers,” said Dr. Rebecca Selzer, President, Roche NimbleGen. “The SeqCap RNA products, together with the SeqCap EZ and Epi Systems, offer the genomics community comprehensive target enrichment tools for genomic DNA sequencing, bisulfite sequencing and transcriptome research.”