New England Biolabs® to present latest updates in Next Generation Sequencing Sample Preparation at 2026 AGBT Meeting

Data will be presented on advances in sample prep for RNA sequencing, long-read sequencing, enzymatic methyl sequencing and infectious disease surveillance

IPSWICH, Mass., Feb. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- New England Biolabs (NEB®) will be presenting exciting updates in NGS library preparation technology at this year's Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) Meeting. As a Bronze Meeting Sponsor, NEB will be introducing updates to the NEBNext® product portfolio, which include the latest advances in RNA sequencing, solutions for long-read sequencing, advances in enzymatic methyl sequencing (EM-seq™) and infectious disease surveillance workflows. In addition, NEB will be highlighting its newly introduced Monarch ^® nucleic acid purification solutions, including the Monarch® Mag Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) Extraction Kit, to enable scalable, reproducible cfDNA isolation from biofluids.

Dr. Bernard Lam, Associate Director of the Translational Genomics Laboratory at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research will be presenting his work during the Bronze Sponsor Workshop, titled "Cross-platform evaluation of whole methylome sequencing in research and clinical specimens."

At the meeting, NEB will be launching NEBNext UltraShear® Long Read – a novel enzymatic solution for the fragmentation of DNA between 2-30 kilobases in length. Data will demonstrate workflow advantages, improvements in sequencing efficiency, and utility in direct methylation detection.

Additionally, NEB will be presenting data on the recently released NEBNext Low-bias Small RNA Library Prep Kit. The kit features a single-day, gel-free workflow, based on a proprietary approach for unbiased ligation of sequencing adaptors to enable sequencing across the range of miRNA and small RNA applications.

NEB will be presenting two scientific posters at the meeting.  Posters will focus on agnostic pathogen detection in wastewater, as well as the successful application of NEBNext enzymatic methyl sequencing to highly damaged DNA samples.

According to Keerthana Krishnan, Ph.D., Associate Director of NGS Product Development, "We're excited for this year's meeting. AGBT offers a unique opportunity to showcase our technology developments, as well as engage on a scientist-to-scientist level with the individuals pushing the boundaries of what is possible with sequencing technologies."

This year's meeting will be held from February 23-26 at the Signia by Hilton Bonnet Creek Hotel in Orlando, Florida, and NEB will be hosting meetings, events and scientific presentations in the Sarasota Suite.

Presentations:

In addition to the scientific poster sessions, NEB will feature posters in the Sarasota Suite on advancements in several areas, including:

• Methylation/epigenetics, including variant calling and EM-seq v2 with target enrichment/faster deamination
• Clinical/sensitive applications, including cfRNA/DNA with Ultra II/UltraExpress and UltraShear library prep (HQ/FFPE)
• Streamlined library prep, including UltraExpress with low input and Low-bias Small RNA
• New solutions, such as UltraShear Long Read, new polymerases, direct RNA and NicE-seq

For more information on the NEBNext portfolio of reagents for sample preparation, visit www.NEBNext.com

About New England Biolabs

For over 50 years, New England Biolabs (NEB) has pioneered the discovery and production of innovative products tailored for molecular biology research. Our commitment to scientific discovery is evident in all that we do, including our ever-expanding product portfolio, investment in our basic and applied research program, and support of customers' research in academia and industry, including cutting-edge technologies for use in molecular diagnostics and nucleic-acid vaccines development. Guided by our founding principles, NEB proactively invests in efforts to improve the well-being of our employees, surrounding communities, as well as the future of our planet. NEB remains a privately held company with global reach, supported by our headquarters in Ipswich, MA, USA, subsidiary offices in 10 countries, and over 60 distribution partners around the world. For more information about New England Biolabs, visit www.neb.com.

NEW ENGLAND BIOLABS^®, NEB®, NEBNEXT^® NEBNEXT ULTRAEXPRESS^®, NEBNext UltraShear ^® and MONARCH ® are registered trademarks of New England Biolabs, Inc.

SOURCE New England Biolabs, Inc.