next-generation sequencing


Some clarifications about Ion Torrent PII and NextSeq 500 2

Yesterday’s Ion Torrent Proton PII™ and Illumina NextSeq 500™ post certainly got a reaction from several quarters, including detailed pricing information about the 1x75bp format for the high-throughput configuration on the consumables. Instead of making edits to the original here are some clarifying points, as it is clear that Illumina […]


A Revolution in Prenatal Diagnostics 3

Every mother-to-be who has what is considered an ‘at-risk’ pregnancy is informed of the risks to the fetus of a genetic abnormality. ‘At-risk’ can involve a long list of medical conditions (diabetes or cancer for example) or poor health choices (illegal drug use or smoking). Yet a common cause of […]


Sequencing the Immune Repertoire (T-Cell Receptor genes) 2

Immunology is a fascinating subject. Immense in its complexity, debilitating when the immune system malfunctions, our ability to fend off bacterial and viral infection, cancers of different types, and other foreign invaders is a remarkable biological capability. The NIH estimates 24M Americans are affected with an autoimmune disorder, but that […]


Complete Genomics’ Long Fragment Read Technology and Haplotype Phasing 2

This week a remarkable paper was published in Nature, called “Accurate  whole-genome sequencing and haplotyping from 10 to 20 human cells”. What makes it remarkable is the ability of this method to obtain rare variant phase information by changing the library preparation method. Until now to obtain completely phased individual […]


An Overview of NGS Targeted Selection Methods and Marketplace 2

Although the whole genome versus whole exome discussion was held previously, details around the methods of selecting out the whole exome have been not discussed (also called ‘targeted selection’), and the wide array of methods, costs, and effort required can be a rather complicated affair.


Error, alignment, and the myth of the complete genome

The myth of the complete genome is something that is not commonly known to active observers of genomic technologies. (The term ‘active observer’ is from the point of view of one with varying degrees of background in the biological sciences, and is in noway an aspersion.) The ‘first draft’ of […]


Oxford Nanopore, the first nanopore-based sequencing technology

Oxford Nanopore, based in Oxford U.K., made a remarkable announcement that surprised many in February’s AGBT meeting in Marco Island. A GridION and MiniION single-molecule sequencers were announced, promising 15 minute runtimes, no sample preparation, and a disposable USB-stick sequencer for $900 (in the case of the MiniION), with 50kb […]


Complete Genomics and the Whole Genome Sequencing market 3

Complete Genomics is a startup business founded upon a particular idea – that the whole genome sequencing of human individuals is going to be industrialized, commonplace, and have such clinical utility so as to become the dominant application for next-generation sequencing. (Disclosure – I have no financial interest in this […]


Next Generation Sequencing – Sequencing by Pyrophosphate Release

After preparation of the library (and careful quantitation) and preparation of the amplified template comes the main event: the sequencing itself. While there are several methods available, the methods can be divided into three broad divisions. The three divisions are (firstly) Pyrophosphate Release (named for the original patent by Mostafa […]