PacBio launches SPRQ-Nx chemistry and software update for Vega systems enhancing in-house sequencing
PacBio announced the upcoming availability of SPRQ-Nx chemistry and an accompanying software update for its Vega systems. Together, the updates expand the range of HiFi applications laboratories can run in-house and allow customers to match sequencing performance and run time to specific project needs.
Vega SPRQ-Nx brings the same core chemistry used on the high-throughput Revio system to Vega, increasing output from 60 Gb to 90 Gb of HiFi data per run. PacBio is also lowering the U.S. list price per run from $1,100 to $995. The higher output and lower price per run lowers cost per Gb by approximately 40%, letting laboratories run more samples across whole-genome sequencing, targeted sequencing, and synthetic biology applications.
Alongside the new chemistry, the Vega software update introduces two-hour and four-hour sequencing runs. The update also brings Vega in line with the multiomic analysis capabilities available on Revio with a new 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) caller and improved 5mC and 6mA callers. Finally, the update adds user login and audit-tracking capabilities designed to support customers’ 21 CFR Part 11 compliance efforts and strengthen data integrity and workflow traceability.
Vega SPRQ-Nx chemistry lowers DNA input requirements from 2 µg to as low as 500 ng, up to a fourfold reduction that gives laboratories greater flexibility with limited samples and broadens the range of projects they can run in-house. The higher yield also enables laboratories to multiplex up to 96 samples per run using PacBio PureTarget repeat expansion and carrier screening panels, increasing throughput and lowering per-sample sequencing costs.

