The brief
- Founded 1998, Illumina pioneered cluster generation for high-throughput genome sequencing at scale.
- NovaSeq X (launched Sept 2022) is installed in 890+ sites globally. 2026 updates: Q70 accuracy, 30% faster, 35B reads/run.
- Cost per genome below $200 in 2026. ~70-80% market share in global sequencing.
Technical approach
Cluster generation
Amplifying DNA on a flow cell surface
Millions of DNA fragments amplify in parallel on a glass slide, creating individually sequenced clusters.
Sequencing by synthesis
Fluorescent base incorporation
Each strand extends one labeled nucleotide per cycle; cameras record which base at each position.
Data quality
High accuracy and phred scores
NovaSeq X 2026 updates achieve Q70 (99.99999% accuracy) for confident clinical variant calling.
Throughput
Production-scale sequencing
35B reads/run enabled; sequences thousands of genomes in parallel for large cohorts.
