KAPA HyperCap Workflow

At Roche Sequencing, we constantly strive to respond to our customers’ ever-changing needs. In order to better serve those needs, we decided to refresh the technology that serves as a vital component to our end-to-end solution (Sample In – Sequencing-Ready). Therefore, it ultimately meant that we needed to transition to a new technology which moves away from the Maskless Array Synthesis manufacturing method of SeqCap.

We will actively support the SeqCap (EZ, Epi, RNA) and HEAT-Seq technology until the end of 2021. The SeqCap and HEAT-Seq probes have a shelf life of 2 years post manufacturing. The last manufacturing round for the current product offerings is the end of 2019, so we will actively support (including reagents) until the end of 2021.

The new technology still utilizes biotinylated DNA probes for in-solution hybridization-based Target Enrichment.

We will support current SeqCap EZ custom design lift-over to designs based on the new technology both through the upgraded online HyperDesign Tool (successor of NimbleDesign) and our expert design team. The same design algorithm that allowed you to access your desired regions is going to serve as a key foundation for the new target enrichment offering from Roche Sequencing Solutions.

RSS Madison will cease probe pool production by March 31st, 2020. It is not possible to hold stock of custom or Design Share designs at RSS Madison or other RSS sites since Custom and Design Share designs are made-to-order. Hence, all custom design probes manufactured from 2020 onwards will be using the new TE manufacturing process.

The last order date for SeqCap and HEAT-Seq catalog probe designs is June 28th, 2020 as those designs will be kept on stock at the warehouses and in quantities based on final forecasts.

The last order date for HyperCap kits is the end of 2020. With a shelf life of 12 months, these reagents will support SeqCap and HEAT-Seq probes until Q1 2022 as those probes have 24-month shelf life.

The main upgrade is to our hybridization probes which will be manufactured differently than they are today and will result in higher probe fidelity, leading to better performance. Additionally, this change enables better manufacturing process, as such, Roche will be able to offer more reaction pack sizes and increased sequencing efficiency as a result of higher uniformity and lower PCR duplication. Our design expertise and renowned probe selection algorithm will remain in place for a superior customer experience. Also, workflow improvements are under development including bringing together many new KAPA library prep and accessories into the target enrichment workflow.

Our proven design algorithm, years of design expertise and probe selection pipeline will remain at the heart of our new target enrichment offering. We are committed to carrying on the expertise and knowledge that has been allowing our customers to access difficult genomic regions compared to other target enrichment design technologies in the market. That is why we are launching a new custom design tool HyperDesign, which is the successor of NimbleDesign. Its enhanced, intuitive interface along with other features provides an improved and seamless user experience.

Our focus remains on serving the Illumina ecosystem with regards to the development of our new target enrichment offering. Based on customer feedback, we’ll continuously evaluate whether to offer additional Sequencing Systems support as needed.