New DNA library preparation option at NGI: Watchmaker DNA Library Prep Kit
NGI now offers the Watchmaker DNA Library Prep Kit with Fragmentation, providing both PCR-free and PCR-based workflows with lower DNA input requirements.
We are happy to announce that we are now offering the Watchmaker DNA Library Prep Kit with Fragmentation protocol at NGI.
Watchmaker DNA is a flexible whole-genome library preparation protocol, offering a PCR-free workflow from as little as 100 ng DNA and PCR-based workflow for lower-input samples.
Both PCR-free and PCR-based workflows are offered as accredited methods.
Validation of the Watchmaker library preparation kit was performed against several kits, including current NGI protocols – TruSeq DNA PCR-free, TruSeq DNA Nano protocols, and ThruPLEX DNA-Seq Kit – using human, microbial community standard and yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) samples.
Our validation demonstrated that the new Watchmaker protocol offers a more cost-effective and user-friendly workflow while requiring substantially less input DNA. Evaluation of key performance metrics (e.g. data quality, library complexity, coverage uniformity and genotype concordance) confirmed that the new kit performs equally well or better than our current protocols.
With the introduction of the Watchmaker workflow, we will also begin phasing out the following DNA library preparation kits: TruSeq DNA PCR-Free and TruSeq DNA Nano. Both kits will be discontinued on March 1, 2027.
If you are planning a project that would normally use TruSeq DNA PCR-Free or TruSeq DNA Nano please contact us for a discussion: support@ngisweden.se
Last Updated: 1st October 2026