Just finished up day 1 at the SOLiD users group meeting. Was a good meeting with both a look at AB R&D, and quite a few good customer presentations.
The highlight for me (aside from the customer presentations) was hearing about the next version of SOLiD. Minor changes to the instruments liquid handling setup end up meaning major changes in hands-on time and overall run time. In addition longer frag and mate reads dramatically increase throughput.
On the hardware side they are moving the head computer onto a separated cart (instead of the shelf), which will now house large carboys of instrument buffer, storage buffer, and waste. The other three buffers (cleaves/reset) are moved around the left side to allow the syringe to accessed at the front door of the instrument.
Perhaps most significantly, the new system will not require daily plate changes, nor will require mixing any reagents. Each primer set will come entirely premixed in strip tubes, which are simply dropped into a chiller. This enables what they call "5 primer walk away". No more plate changes on the weekends.
Not to mention 24 hour operation knocks quite a bit off the run times, and reduces variability from buffer freeze-thaws and plates sitting in the fridge.
Last but not least there is a new reagent, an "imaging buffer" which supposedly offers a dramatic enhancement of fluorescent signals.
Chemistry wise, there were no details as to what changed, but 50bp frag, 2x50bp long mates (new protocol for long tags), and potentially 75bp frags were discussed. In any event, 20G per run is the new specification
There is also a new compute cluster with 2x the RAM (16GB per node), and 5TB more storage for results. Plus quite a few enhancements to SETS for automated offloading of data, email notifications, and multiple instrument control. Better bead calling algorithms and depositions mean also upping the density to 140-150k beads/panel.
No idea on cost. But target full launch is Feb '09.
The highlight for me (aside from the customer presentations) was hearing about the next version of SOLiD. Minor changes to the instruments liquid handling setup end up meaning major changes in hands-on time and overall run time. In addition longer frag and mate reads dramatically increase throughput.
On the hardware side they are moving the head computer onto a separated cart (instead of the shelf), which will now house large carboys of instrument buffer, storage buffer, and waste. The other three buffers (cleaves/reset) are moved around the left side to allow the syringe to accessed at the front door of the instrument.
Perhaps most significantly, the new system will not require daily plate changes, nor will require mixing any reagents. Each primer set will come entirely premixed in strip tubes, which are simply dropped into a chiller. This enables what they call "5 primer walk away". No more plate changes on the weekends.
Not to mention 24 hour operation knocks quite a bit off the run times, and reduces variability from buffer freeze-thaws and plates sitting in the fridge.Last but not least there is a new reagent, an "imaging buffer" which supposedly offers a dramatic enhancement of fluorescent signals.
Chemistry wise, there were no details as to what changed, but 50bp frag, 2x50bp long mates (new protocol for long tags), and potentially 75bp frags were discussed. In any event, 20G per run is the new specification
There is also a new compute cluster with 2x the RAM (16GB per node), and 5TB more storage for results. Plus quite a few enhancements to SETS for automated offloading of data, email notifications, and multiple instrument control. Better bead calling algorithms and depositions mean also upping the density to 140-150k beads/panel.
No idea on cost. But target full launch is Feb '09.
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