Takara Bio USA, Inc. launches automated, full-length single-cell RNA-seq solution for enhanced biomarker discovery

San Jose, CA—October 18, 2021—Takara Bio USA, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Takara Bio Inc., today announced the launch of the SMART-Seq Pro kit for the ICELL8 cx Single-Cell System. This automated single-cell RNA-seq solution allows scientists to generate full-length transcriptome data from over 1,500 single cells simultaneously and from a wide range of sample types—even large, delicate adult cardiomyocytes.

While single-cell RNA sequencing has exploded in popularity over the last 10 years, two significant challenges remain: maintaining the sensitivity of the assay during miniaturization and interrogating full-length mRNA transcripts for potential biomarkers. “Due to the limitations of most single-cell systems, scientists can only look for potential biomarkers at the ends of mRNA transcripts, and sensitivity is sacrificed for throughput," commented Carol Lou, President and CEO of Takara Bio USA. "Our new SMART-Seq Pro technology for the ICELL8 cx system, together with our bioinformatics tools, overcome these limitations, delivering full-length transcript information and enabling easy data analysis to power biomarker discovery."

The ICELL8 cx Single-Cell System is an advanced, integrated automation platform for imaging and dispensing thousands of single cells in 5,184-nanowell chips. With the launch of the SMART-Seq Pro kit for the ICELL8 cx system, Takara Bio USA has created an end-to-end solution for sensitive transcriptome analysis of up to eight samples at once. With the integrated Cogent Analysis Pipeline and Cogent Discovery software, scientists can analyze their samples for rare biomarkers like isoforms, gene fusions, and single nucleotide variants, which are missed with other systems.

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