Excellent For Multiple NGS Samples

UCSF
Biomedical Sciences
Graduate Student

Overall

Performance

Ease-of-Optimization

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Company:

Agilent

Product Name:

4200 TapeStation System

Catalog Number:

G2991BA

I apply large-scale multi-omics assays in human samples for basic and translational biomedical research, from scRNA-Seq to epigenomics and genome-wide CRISPR screens.

Experimental Design and Results Summary

Application

Next-generation sequencing

Tips

Interestingly, the 4200 system was far more reliable and easy-to-use compared to the 2200 and I noticed that the 2200 was recently discontinued. Our 2200 model broke down and required many repairs, whereas the 4200 has been a consistent performer. I would highly recommend going with the 4200 rather than the 2200, even if the 2200 is much less expensive. From what the Agilent rep told me, the 4200 was re-designed and re-built from the ground-up, whereas the 2200 was essentially the prototype that came from the start-up that Agilent acquired.

DOI or PMID #

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Summary

The Good

The great strength of the TapeStation is that it is fast and easy-to-use. You essentially just mix your DNA or RNA sample with the buffer in a PCR strip, drop it in the TapeStation with the appropriate tape, and click go. If you have a lot of samples (Bioanalyzer limited to 11 per run), you can prepare them all at once and even run it from a 96W plate on the 4200 model. For comparison, you would have to do the entire BIonanalyzer procedure with the gel and syringe 9 times to do 96 samples, which is incredibly painful.

The Bad

There are a few niche cases where the Bioanalyzer outperforms the TapeStation (hence 4 stars for quality of results), and if you fall into those use cases, you will need to make a tough decision. Since this is a review of the TapeStation, I will focus on the two TapeStation models and leave my thoughts for the Bioanalyzer in a separate review.

The Bottom Line

Prior to having the 4200 model, our institute had the 2200 model as well as the older Agilent Bioanalyzer. I've personally used all 3 of these machines and have run close to 1,000 samples on them during the course of my PhD. If your lab or center regularly runs any NGS assays at scale (genome sequencing, RNA-Seq, ChIP-Seq, ATAC-Seq, scRNA-Seq), the TapeStation makes sample processing an order of magnitude easier.

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