Product Development

How variant surveillance could drive a sequencing boom 

Infrastructure to monitor SARS-CoV-2 mutations could pay dividends for AMR, cancer and the next pandemic

Infrastructure to monitor SARS-CoV-2 mutations could pay dividends for AMR, cancer and the next pandemic.

The push to keep up with COVID-19 variants could be the inflection point that turns genomic sequencing from a sophisticated technique into a widely accessible tool, with companies in the driver’s seat focused on automation. 

The global marshaling of next-generation sequencing (NGS) infrastructure to monitor mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome is the latest example of how the pandemic is reshaping the diagnostics industry by blurring the boundaries between individual diagnostics and public health research, and widening the scope of where testing happens.

The transition is facilitated by plug-and-play NGS workflows, which are democratizing processes that used to require experts.

“There’s a whole ecosystem of companies that are well poised to make this a reality that wasn’t as possible before,” said Dylan