Takara Bio, SPT Labtech Partner on Automated NGS Prep

Takara Bio USA has partnered with SPT Labtech to deliver automation-ready NGS library preparation workflows that pair Takara Bio chemistries with SPT Labtech’s firefly liquid handling platform. Announced on 21 October 2026 and validated with the University of Cambridge’s Stratified Medicine Core Laboratory NGS Hub, the collaboration sharpens competitive positioning across the growing high-throughput NGS workflow automation category and intensifies pressure on incumbent library prep automation suppliers.

 The partnership initially focuses on optimising select SMART-Seq RNA-seq library prep workflows on firefly, with plans to expand to further RNA-seq, DNA-seq and immune profiling kits. Automation scripts for SMART-Seq mRNA LP and SMART-Seq Total RNA Library Prep with ZapR Depletion (with UMIs) are available now on the SPT cloud portal. SMART-Seq mRNA Long Read Extended kit, the first product launched with a firefly-optimised workflow, is scheduled to ship in January 2027, offering input flexibility, long full-length transcript recovery, UMI-based quantitation and operational efficiency. Andrew Farmer, DPhil, President and CEO of Takara Bio USA, and Paul Lomax, Head of Genomics at SPT Labtech, framed the partnership around high-volume NGS core labs and labs constrained by staffing, space or budget.

The firefly platform offers a small footprint all-in-one design, intuitive programming, configurable user permissions, transparent audit trail and peer-to-peer cloud network for accessing verified methods. Dr Ana Luisa Toribio, Head of the Stratified Medicine Core Laboratory NGS Hub at the University of Cambridge, validated the workflow. The collaboration sharpens competitive positioning across the NGS library preparation and lab automation markets, intensifying pressure on incumbents Illumina (DNA Prep, TruSeq), Thermo Fisher Scientific (Ion Torrent library prep), Agilent Technologies (SureSelect, Bravo automation), Beckman Coulter (Biomek), Hamilton Robotics (Vantage, STAR), Tecan (Fluent) and PerkinElmer (Sciclone). Both companies will be at ASHG 2026 in Montreal, 20-24 October.

The commercial signal is a maturing NGS library preparation automation category where small-footprint liquid handling platforms and cloud-shared verified methods challenge conventional benchtop automation workflows and open high-throughput genomics access for budget-constrained core labs. SMART-Seq Long Read January 2027 launch is a key milestone. Expect Takara Bio, SPT Labtech, Illumina, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Agilent Technologies, Beckman Coulter, Hamilton Robotics, Tecan and PerkinElmer to sharpen their NGS workflow automation positioning through 2027.

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