Blog
February 12, 2021
LeafGo: A Workflow That Enables High-Quality Seven-Day Plant Genome Assembly
UPDATE — September 3, 2021: This paper is now published in Genome Biology. ORIGINAL POST What does the ideal genome assembly look like? High-quality, free of errors, with no…
February 3, 2021
Genomes vs. genNNNes: the difference between contigs and scaffolds in genome assemblies
Updated on February 24, 2023. Originally published September, 2016. In recent interactions with the scientific community, we’ve seen a growing number of questions around scaffolding genome assemblies. We thought…
January 28, 2021
New Macaque Genome Provides a Big Boost for Biomedical Research
They may not be as well known as our chimpanzee or gorilla cousins, but macaques have played many key roles in scientific progress over the last half century. From launching…
January 21, 2021
PacBio-Powered Analysis Indicates Methylation Makes TB Pathogen So Wily
Scientists have long struggled to explain the success of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the face of effective therapeutics. Tuberculosis (TB) kills more than 1 million people annually, and has a remarkable ability…
January 15, 2021
PacBio and Invitae Team Up to Develop Ultra-High-Throughput Clinical Whole Genome Sequencing Platform
The power of PacBio HiFi reads has enabled transformative research into human disease. A new collaboration with Invitae, a leader in medical genetics, is intended to help harness the technology…
January 11, 2021
Copy Cats: Improved Cat Genomes Highlight Remarkable Similarities Within the Feline Family
Felix, Garfield, Leo the Lion — despite their differences, the genomes of these frisky felines are highly conserved across the family, even among its most divergent members. A new set…
December 31, 2020
The Most Wonderful Webinars of the Year
The year the world went virtual is virtually over, so what better time to reflect on all the great online offerings featuring SMRT Sequencing this year. While we would have…
December 29, 2020
A Glimpse into the Gut: HiFi Sequencing Enables Strain-Level Study of Intestinal and Breastmilk Microbiota in Celiac Disease
Celiac disease happens in the gut, but scientists still don’t fully understand the complex interplay between host genetics and the environmental factors that lead to the development of the autoimmune…
December 16, 2020
With Highly Accurate Variant Calling and Phasing, SMRT Sequencing Advances PGx Studies of SLC6A4
Scientists at Stanford University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have made impressive strides in resolving variants in the SLC6A4 promoter associated with susceptibility to psychiatric disorders…
December 14, 2020
SMRT Sequencing Offers a Universal Approach for Thalassemia Carrier Testing
Scientists in China have used SMRT Sequencing to demonstrate the value of highly accurate long reads for identifying, linking, and phasing variants associated with a group of blood disorders known…
December 10, 2020
Sequencing 101: ploidy, haplotypes, and phasing — how to get more from your sequencing data
Geneticists often point out that a human does not have “a” genome but rather two genomes: one inherited from the mother and another from the father. The number of…
November 25, 2020
Better Apple Pies: HiFi Reads are a Perfect Recipe for High-Quality Apple Genome and Pangenome Assemblies
Scientists at the Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service have reported significant progress in understanding the genomic features of domestic and wild apples. They used HiFi reads, highly accurate long…
November 17, 2020
Scientists Pinpoint Pathogenic Inversion in Intellectual Disability Case Using HiFi Sequencing
Scientists at Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine and Osaka Women’s and Children’s Hospital have discovered a novel pathogenic variant associated with intellectual disability. They made the discovery using…
November 10, 2020
Secrets to Longevity Explored in de novo Genome of 115-Year-Old Woman
A new publication from scientists in The Netherlands and Belgium offers tantalizing insights that may shed light on age-related neurodegenerative disorders. The team used SMRT Sequencing to produce a de…
October 29, 2020
Breast Cancer Research Legend Mary-Claire King Identifies New Pathogenic Mutation with HiFi Sequencing
It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to honor the passionate scientist who has perhaps single-handedly done more to advance breast…