The Broad Institute has joined the Illumina Genome Network (IGN) to offer its proprietary sample preparation processes for whole human genome sequencing.

Broad’s approach enables high-quality sequencing of challenging low input DNA (

There are millions of biological samples within the global research community, most of them largely inaccessible by standard sample prep approaches because they are embedded in paraffin blocks or of very low genomic representation. The new offering through IGN and Broad allows researchers to interrogate these valuable samples that had previously been unable to be sequenced, with the objective to accelerate discovery in critical fields such as oncology.

“Partnering with Illumina allows us to extend our mission by providing researchers worldwide with our capability of processing low input and FFPE samples that are essential to their research,” said Robert Nicol, Ph.D., director of operations and technology development in the genome sequencing platform at the Broad Institute.

Suitability of projects for these specialized services will be evaluated jointly by Broad and Illumina. Interested researchers should contact Illumina directly.