Swift Biosciences and LGC partner on targeted sequencing assays for AgBio market

Swift Biosciences, Inc., a leader in commercialisation of DNA and RNA library preparation kits for Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), today announced a partnership agreement with LGC, Biosearch Technologies, a global leader in specialty genomic analysis tools to leverage Swift’s targeted sequencing technology into LGC Biosearch Techologies kits and service offerings for the worldwide AgBio market.

Under this arrangement, LGC will be Swift’s exclusive worldwide partner for amplicon-based targeted sequencing assays for genotyping AgBio samples, including crop species and animals. Based on Swift’s Accel-Amplicon^® Custom Panel product line, LGC’s products and services will utilise Swift’s innovative primer design algorithms, patented multiplex PCR chemistry, and NGS library preparation reagents to enable mid-density SNP genotyping by sequencing for high sample throughput applications.

Drew McUsic, PhD, Senior Product Manager at Swift Biosciences said, “Swift developed a patented, multiplex PCR library preparation technology to enable sequencing thousands of targets per assay and primer design software that accommodates various plant and animal genomes. Partnering with LGC allows Swift to focus the application of that technology into the AgBio market.”

Joris Parmentier, Strategic Marketing Manager NGS at LGC, Biosearch Technologies said, “The AgBio sequencing space is developing rapidly and it demands cost effective, convenient assays capable of reliably delivering broad genetic trait profiles to inform decisions in breeding and agricultural product development. Swift’s patented technology complements our NGS portfolio and allows us to provide a targeted genotyping by sequencing solution to our customers that is simple, fast and cost effective enough to enable the sample throughput required and accelerate their breeding programs.”

Swift offers a variety of catalog and custom panels developed for AgBio, human inherited disease, microbiome sequencing, and sample tracking applications. The Accel-Amplicon targeted design and NGS library prep workflow is a robust solution to interrogate from tens to thousands of mutations in a single PCR reaction with a 2-hour DNA-to-sequencer workflow. Due to the relatively low sequencing depth required for germline genotyping and the high multiplexing capabilities of this library preparation technology, LGC selected to license Swift’s products to accommodate this growing requirement for its AgBio customers.

Through the partnership, Swift and LGC hope to accelerate breeding programs and support customer’s desires to get selected traits to market faster.