According to a recent press release, “Lexogen, a transcriptomics and next-generation sequencing company and Bluebee, a global bioinformatics platform, have announced today the implementation of QuantSeq Unique Molecular Identifiers (UMI) data analysis pipeline on the Bluebee genomics analysis platform. This collaboration offers QuantSeq users utilizing UMIs the opportunity to analyze samples in a convenient and rapid manner without the need for prior bioinformatics experience. QuantSeq is a 3′ mRNA-Seq library prep protocol, which is the method of choice for RNA-Seq gene expression analysis due to the simplicity, cost effectiveness, and data quality offered by this technology.”

The release goes on, “The QuantSeq protocol has been recently complemented with the launch of dual indexing barcodes (total 192 unique barcodes) and UMIs. Dual indexing helps detect and identify index hopping, which is an issue recently reported for sequencing instruments with patterned flow cells. Dual indexing barcodes also help avoid cross-contamination and minimize index mis assignment. UMIs are used to eliminate possible PCR duplicates in sequencing datasets and therefore facilitate unbiased gene expression profiling. The basic principle behind the UMI deduplication step is to collapse reads with identical mapping coordinates and UMI sequences. This step helps increase the accuracy of sequencing read counts for downstream analysis of gene expression levels.”

Read more at PR Newswire.

Photo credit: Lexogen