PacBio begins shipping SPRQ-Nx chemistry to reduce genome costs

PacBio (NASDAQ: PACB) announced the global shipment of its SPRQ-Nx sequencing chemistry and new multi-use SMRT Cells for the Revio HiFi sequencing platform. The company stated the technology brings the per genome list price to $345, with the possibility of sub-$300 HiFi genomes for customers sequencing at scale.

The new chemistry allows SMRT Cell consumables to be used multiple times, according to the company. PacBio reported that beta testing across 20 sites in Europe, Asia, and the United States, spanning over 1,400 runs, showed increased yield and lower failure rates compared to its previous SPRQ chemistry.

The company also announced updates to DeepConsensus, an AI-powered consensus algorithm developed with Google. The updates include optimizations from Google's AlphaEvolve coding agent and new deep learning models for epigenetic detection, including updated 5mC and 6mA models and a new 5-hydroxymethyl-cytosine caller.

"In our beta testing, we saw consistently strong run performance," said Adam Ameur, Associate Professor and Senior Bioinformatician at Uppsala University. "The simple workflow, low failure rates, and substantially lower pricing with multi-use SMRT Cells make SPRQ-Nx a practical upgrade for large-scale sequencing projects."

PacBio CEO Christian Henry stated that the technology allows Revio customers to generate more information-rich HiFi long-read data at lower cost. The improvements are available on existing Revio systems through a software upgrade and new consumable kits.

The company plans to bring SPRQ-Nx chemistry to its Vega benchtop system later in 2026. The sub-$300 genome pricing is based on sequencing 5,000 genomes per year with applicable discounts.

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