![Illumina will partner with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care to offer non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) to women with average-risk pregnancies based on next-generation sequencing. [© zentilia/Fotolia]](https://www.insideprecisionmedicine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1471.jpeg "Illumina will partner with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care to offer non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) to women with average-risk pregnancies based on next-generation sequencing. [© zentilia/Fotolia]")
Molecular diagnostics group Yourgene has launched its IONA Nx NIPT workflow, a new non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT). The IONA Nx uses a new fetal fraction enrichment step with the Yourgene QS250 instrument, which enriches fetal fraction by two-fold, reducing the need for as much sequencing—making it a more cost effective NIPT workflow. The Yourgene QS250 is powered by the Ranger technology, from Coastal Genomics which Yourgene acquired in August 2020. The use of the Yourgene QS250 in an NIPT NGS workflow is an industry step change, the instrument increases cell free fetal DNA enrichment which increases sequencing efficiency and improves the performance of NIPT. The IONA Nx is developed to run on the Illumina Nextseq 550 Dx platform for next generation sequencing and offers clinical labs a high performing, flexible, scalable, and innovative in-house NIPT.
