Life sciences company Helicos BioSciences, US, has announced the release of transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) datasets on the HeliSphere Technology Center (http://open.helicosbio.com), the company's open access website for sharing Helicos datasets and bioinformatics software tools. Helicos' amplification and ligation-free approach is projected to virtually eliminate the creation of false-positive splicing and fusion events, frequently observed in other RNA-Seq datasets.
Helicos RNA-Seq is seen to represent a powerful application for the Helicos Genetic Analysis System. It is claimed to provide researchers with the ability to obtain deep sequence coverage of the transcriptome for the elucidation of novel transcripts, novel splice forms, and allele-specific expression patterns. It is also observed to eliminate the biases, artifacts and complexity introduced by amplification and ligation. RNA-Seq was performed using polyadenylated RNA from human brain and liver tissues, resulting in the generation of about 16 million aligned reads per channel for each sample.
With the high number of reads per channel and an extremely simple sample preparation process, the Helicos platform is expected to provide a comprehensive view of the transcriptome at a low cost. It is also seen to allow the analysis of many samples in a single 50-channel run of the HeliScope Single Molecule Sequencer.
The amplification/ligation-free Helicos RNA-Seq protocol has been released to a limited set of customers and is expected to be commercialised later this year.
