Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: A) announced today the shipping of a new instrument that offers laboratories a more affordable, low-throughput option for analyzing the quality of RNA and DNA samples.

"The Agilent 4150 TapeStation system makes quality control in next-generation sequencing easier, faster, and more economical than ever," said Knut Wintergerst, general manager of Agilent’s Biomolecular Systems and Solutions product line.

He noted that the new system provides automated electrophoresis and extends the company's ScreenTape technology to smaller biobanks that need to provide information about sample integrity.

"Laboratories that have limited budgets will now be able to take advantage of all the features and benefits of our ScreenTape technology: ease of use, constant cost per sample, fast and accurate results, and minimal hands-on time, Wintergerst explained.

The 4150 TapeStation system is compatible with Agilent's complete portfolio of all DNA and RNA assays which also run on the higher throughput 4200 TapeStation instrument.