PacBio (NASDAQ: PACB) and Covaris announced a joint workflow for sequencing formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples. The protocol will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting.

The workflow combines Covaris' truXTRAC FFPE extraction technology with PacBio's Kinnex library preparation and Revio sequencing system. Covaris' Adaptive Focused Acoustics-based extraction method recovers DNA fragments up to 5,000 base pairs from FFPE tissues, while PacBio's technology concatenates these fragments for HiFi sequencing.

Testing across brain, kidney, and uterine tumor samples produced more than 100 million HiFi reads per sample with mean read lengths of 750-1,500 base pairs. The data detected over 11,000 structural variants and more than 5 million small variants per sample, with approximately 60% phased into haplotypes.

Short-read sequencing of FFPE tissue typically detects 3,000-7,000 structural variants per sample. While short-read approaches produce comparable small variant counts, their shorter read lengths limit direct phasing of variants into haplotypes.

"By combining our proven AFA-based extraction technology with PacBio's sequencing expertise, we are enabling researchers to unlock valuable insights from even the most challenging FFPE samples," said Annemarie Watson, CEO of Covaris.

Dave Miller, Vice President of Global Marketing at PacBio, said the workflow opens archives of banked samples for HiFi sequencing on the Revio and Vega systems.

Covaris is a PerkinElmer company that develops sample preparation technologies for genomic analysis.