By Diagnostics World Staff
August 7, 2026 | PacBio made several announcements this week: a new President and CEO for the company and new chemistry and software update for its Vega systems. The changes aim to position the company for wider platform adoption across labs and research areas.
As of Wednesday, Mark Van Oene has moved from his Chief Operating Officer role to succeed Christian Henry, who has stepped down as President and Chief Executive Officer after six years leading PacBio.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to lead PacBio at such an exciting time in the company’s evolution, especially as we continue our pivot into further supporting the clinical markets and developing AI-related product solutions and clinically relevant databases,” said Van Oene, in the transition announcement. “PacBio has built an industry-leading technology platform, an incredibly talented team, and a passionate customer community that is driving scientific and clinically important discoveries around the world. I am grateful to Christian for his leadership, mentorship, and partnership over the past several years. His vision and dedication have positioned PacBio for a tremendous future, and I look forward to building on that strong foundation.”
Vega Chemistry, Software Update
The chemistry update, Vega SPRQ-Nx, brings the same core chemistry used on the high-throughput Revio system to Vega. It’s an upgrade Henry teased in 2024 when announcing the SPRQ chemistry initially. Though he expected the upgrade to be available by 2025, Henry called it an “upgrade path” for Vega users. “Vega will likely get more powerful over the course of time,” he said then.
Vega SPRQ-Nx increases output from 60 Gb to 90 Gb of HiFi data per run. PacBio is also lowering the U.S. list price per run from $1,100 to $995. The higher output and lower price per run lowers cost per Gb by approximately 40%, letting laboratories run more samples across whole-genome sequencing, targeted sequencing, and synthetic biology applications.
Alongside the new chemistry, the Vega software update introduces two-hour and four-hour sequencing runs, and brings Vega in line with the multiomic analysis capabilities available on Revio with a new 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) caller and improved 5mC and 6mA callers. Finally, the update adds user login and audit-tracking capabilities designed to support customers’ 21 CFR Part 11 compliance efforts and strengthen data integrity and workflow traceability.
Together, the updates expand the range of HiFi applications laboratories can run in-house and allow customers to match sequencing performance and run time to specific project needs.
“One of Mark’s priorities is to expand adoption of HiFi long-read sequencing across labs of different sizes, budgets, and research areas,” said a PacBio company representative. “The new chemistry tackles some of the practical barriers that have historically limited wider use of long reads, including cost, speed and workflow flexibility.”
Vega Distinction
PacBio users do use the Vega and Revio systems for different workloads. In the first half of 2026, 19% of Vega runs used libraries with inserts shorter than 2 kb, compared with 3.6% of Revio runs. While Revio customers primarily run whole-genome and full-length RNA sequencing, Vega customers are using the benchtop system across a broad mix of short-insert applications. The new sequencing options allow these short-insert runs to complete within a single laboratory shift, helping keep projects moving.
Vega SPRQ-Nx chemistry lowers DNA input requirements from 2 µg to as low as 500 ng, up to a fourfold reduction that gives laboratories greater flexibility with limited samples and broadens the range of projects they can run in-house. The higher yield also enables laboratories to multiplex up to 96 samples per run using PacBio PureTarget repeat expansion and carrier screening panels, increasing throughput and lowering per-sample sequencing costs.