Blog
February 10, 2020
PacBio Sequencing Contributes to New Japanese Reference Genome
People of Japanese descent just moved a little closer toward the promise of precision medicine thanks to a population-specific reference genome based on the de novo genome assembly of three…
February 4, 2020
‘Pathway for Discovery’: SMRT Grant Winner Aims to Address the Mysteries of Autism with HiFi Sequencing
We are pleased to announce the winner of the 2019 Human Genetics SMRT Grant: Tychele Turner, an assistant professor who recently joined the Washington University in St. Louis School of…
January 30, 2020
At PAG 2020, HiFi Data ‘Transformational’ for Advancing Plant and Animal Research
What better way to start the year than a gathering of thousands of stellar scientists? We were excited, once again, to attend the Plant and Animal Genome (PAG) Conference in…
January 27, 2020
When Snakes Strike: SMRT Sequencing Reveals Hidden “Venom-ome”
Snake milking, horse blood harvesting and brewing — antivenom production is still more medieval art than modern science. But a new high-quality snake genome may finally pull it into the…
January 23, 2020
Project to Rapidly Sequence Maize Pangenome Delivers Publicly Available Resource
Maize researchers have been rejoicing over a New Year’s gift delivered by a group of 33 scientists: A 26-line “pangenome” reference collection. The multi-institutional consortium of researchers used the Sequel…
January 13, 2020
Direct Phased Genome Assembly Using Nighthawk on HiFi Reads
By Zev Kronenberg, Senior Engineer of Bioinformatics at PacBio Since the introduction of HiFi reads the community has embraced these long and highly accurate reads for human genome assembly…
January 8, 2020
SMRT Grant Winner: Hunting for Answers in Spinocerebellar Ataxia
A hearty congratulations to Cleo van Diemen at the University Medical Center Groningen for winning the 2019 Neuroscience SMRT Grant! Van Diemen’s impressive proposal involves using PacBio long-read sequencing to…
January 3, 2020
Novel Workflow Produces Fully Phased Human Genome Assemblies Without Trio Sequencing
A new preprint from lead authors David Porubsky and Peter Ebert, senior authors Evan Eichler and Tobias Marschall (@tobiasmarschal), and collaborators reports a method for generating fully phased, de novo…
December 27, 2019
SMRT Sequencing Highlights – Top Publications of 2019
With the release of the award-winning Sequel II System, 2019 was an exciting year for the SMRT Sequencing community. We were inspired by our users’ significant contributions to science across…
December 23, 2019
Iso-Seq Analysis Sheds Light on Splicing Associated with Schizophrenia
Neurexin genes, which have been associated with certain neuropsychiatric disorders, are known to make heavy use of alternative splicing. In a recent study, scientists used the Iso-Seq method with SMRT…
December 19, 2019
Release of Six New Reference-Quality Genomes Reveals Superpowers of Bats
Bat lovers and animal researchers have been waiting for insights into the evolution and remarkable genetic adaptations of our winged mammalian friends, ever since the global Bat1K initiative announced its…
December 17, 2019
SMRT Sequencing Enables Discovery of Epigenetic Driver of C. diff Persistence
How do pernicious pathogens like Clostridioides difficile spread through hospitals and persist so tenaciously in the human gut, leading to about half a million infections and 30,000 deaths each year? …
December 11, 2019
Long-Read Sequencing Could Improve the Sensitivity and Precision of 16S Studies Says Jackson Lab Study
It’s time to revisit the way scientists are using 16S rRNA gene sequencing to study microorganisms, according to a team of Jackson Laboratory researchers. Popular targets for taxonomy and phylogeny…
December 5, 2019
Two Review Articles Assess Structural Variation in Human Genomes
Two recent review articles discuss the idea that structural variants (SVs) — genetic differences that involve at least 50 base pairs — are numerous, important to human biology, and best…
December 3, 2019
Award-Winning Sequel II System Sets a New Standard for Long-Read Sequencing
UPDATE: We’re proud to have released the next evolution of the Sequel System: The Sequel IIe. Launched in October 2020, the new system features advanced on-instrument data processing and cloud…