Robotic Centrifugal Microfluidic Automation Enables Library Preparation of Nine Samples with a Tenfold Reduction in Reagent Consumption for Decentralized Sequencing

The RoCM-LP platform combines a centrifugal microfluidic-based cartridge with a pipetting robot, capable of producing nine libraries per run at low-medium initial investment costs ($50k–70k). The costs per sample were substantially reduced due to a tenfold decrease in reagent consumption in comparison to the manual reference workflow, and the number of manual handling steps was minimized from 45 to just three, namely reagent preparation (placing required reagents into the RoCM-LP platform), sample loading, and library retrieval.

The approach achieved quality metrics comparable to those of the manual reference workflow and met all required sequencing quality thresholds across four <i>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</i> complex (MTBC) strains including drug-susceptible, BCG vaccine (Pasteur Bacillus Calmette–Guérin), multidrug-resistant (MDR), and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains for tuberculosis (TB) samples investigated, with an average coverage depth of 107, an average mapped read percentage of 97%, and an average coverage breadth percentage of 98%.