Beckman Coulter Life Sciences and Pillar Biosciences announce NGS application development pipeline for the Biomek NGeniuS System

Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, a global leader in laboratory automation and innovation, continues to lead the way with next-generation sequencing (NGS) research solutions. Today the company announces a collaboration agreement with Pillar Biosciences, which develops and distributes IVD & RUO NGS testing solutions based on their proprietary SLIMamp^® technology to help localize patient testing and optimize the selection of precision therapies for cancer patients. 

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Image Credit: Beckman Coulter Life Sciences

Pillar Biosciences will develop a series of applications for use on the Biomek NGeniuS Next Generation Library Preparation System as part of the agreement. Launched in June of 2022, the Biomek NGeniuS System continues to gain a solid following in research thanks to its open-chemistry concept, user-friendly software, and Dynamic DeckOptix System which reduces errors by identifying misplaced labware. 

The application development partnership is initially focused on five commercially-available, solid tumor liquid biopsy and hematology panels from Pillar Biosciences: 

• oncoReveal^TM Myeloid 
• oncoReveal^TM Solid Tumor v2 
• oncoReveal^TM Multi-Cancer plus CNV 
• oncoReveal^TM Solid Tumor 22 Gene 
• oncoReveal^TM Core LBx 

“Enabling customers to achieve pioneering research breakthroughs is paramount to what we do each and every day at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences,” said Ewan Grant, Senior Director of Liquid Handling and Genomics Product Management. “We are elated that Pillar Biosciences has put their trust in us to deliver a minimal hands-on time solution that removes the burden of slow and grueling manual library preparation, and we look forward to what will be achieved to further accelerate answers in cancer research.” 

The complexity and costs associated with NGS testing are still barriers to broader adoption. A key advantage for Pillar Biosciences is our streamlined single tube, one-day NGS workflow. Combining the simplicity of our NGS library preparation technology with the automation capabilities of the Biomek NGeniuS System will significantly reduce error, assay costs, and hands-on time, helping ensure more oncology researchers get the results they need faster, with lower costs and greater efficiency.” 

Randy Pritchard, CEO, Pillar Biosciences

The application from Pillar Biosciences specifically designed for the Biomek NGeniuS System will be available to customers via a first-of-its-kind electronic application library. 

A presentation highlighting the research findings will take place at the November Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) Annual Meeting and Expo in Salt Lake City, Utah. The presentation, titled Highly Accurate and Automated (RUO) NGS Assays for Efficient Localized LBx and TBx Testing in Oncology will take place on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. MST. A scientific poster entitled Automation of the Pillar Biosciences oncoReveal Solid Tumor 22 gene panel (ORST22) on the Biomek NGeniuS Next Generation Library Prep System will also be presented on Saturday, November 18 at 9:15 a.m. MST. 

With the global NGS market projected to grow to nearly $27 billion by 2027¹, demand is expected to increase for solutions to provide critical assistance to NGS labs. The Biomek NGeniuS System provides users flexibility with exclusive software that allows any batch size, from 4 to 24 samples, to be set up from anywhere and monitored remotely*. The workstation also reduces loading errors by combining sophisticated optical analytics technology to give users real-time feedback on labware placement.