The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is awarding a sole source firm fixed-price purchase order to Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. for sequencing supplies for sequencing 200 bacterial genomes.
The 200 bacterial genomes will be sequenced at CDC on a Pacific Biosciences SMRT Sequencer as part of an Advanced Molecular Detection project. The Pacific Biosciences SMRT Sequencer uses a unique process that provides the long sequencing reads needed to complete the genomes of Neisseria meningitidis, the bacterium studied in the project project.
“The Pacific Biosciences SMRT Sequencer is relatively new and has a unique process that we require for our research. The SMRT Sequencer produces sequencing reads that are 10-20 times longer than other sequencing platforms,” states the announcement. “We have tried two other sequencing platforms, and we have found that using the Pacific Biosciences instrument is the only way to successfully complete our genome sequencing project, due to complicated genome structure in our pathogen of study.”
Neisseria meningitidis, has many horizontal gene transfer events which makes it difficult to assemble sequencing reads. Pacific Biosciences is the only company that makes a sequencer that provides the long sequencing reads required.
Source: FBO.gov
