Blog
December 17, 2018
Alzheimer’s Study Reveals First Somatic Gene Recombination Found in Human Neurons
Scientists in California recently released exciting results that could offer an entirely new approach to treating the most common form of Alzheimer’s disease. The project, which was reported in a…
December 13, 2018
A Sweet Sequence: Sugarcane Genome Assembly After Five-Year Collaborative Effort
It took nearly 20 years until the technology was right, and five years of hard graft by more than 100 scientists from 16 institutions, but the result was worth it,…
December 10, 2018
Targeted PacBio Sequencing Adds to Scientific Arsenal in Evolutionary Arms Race
Cotton crops the world over have benefited from the pest-killing protein from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), first used in sprays and then, in 1996, transgenic crops, resulting in reduced insecticide use,…
December 3, 2018
Barn Swallow Project Helps Introduce PacBio Long Read Technology to Italy
Its reliable return to the same spot year after year has made the barn swallow a beloved symbol of Spring and safe passage, for mariners and landlubbers alike. But our…
November 28, 2018
Tracking the Tuna: How PacBio Sequencing Could Help Save the “King of the Sea”
Their bodies are big, bony and… warm? Unique among bony fish, Atlantic, Pacific and Southern bluefin tuna have a rare endothermic physiology that has garnered great interest among scientists. Like…
November 15, 2018
At ASHG 2018, Workshop Speakers Discuss SMRT Sequencing Applications for Human Disease
Last month’s annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in San Diego was a terrific reminder of how much progress is being made in this field — both…
November 14, 2018
An Interview with Leslie Vosshall: Buzzing About the New Mosquito Reference Genome
The new reference genome for Aedes aegypti, just published in Nature, famously got its start through a crowdsourced effort on social media, beginning with a tweet from Rockefeller University scientist…
November 13, 2018
North American User Group Meeting: Highlights in Human, Animal, Insect, and Microbes
Many thanks to all the PacBio users who attended our annual user group meeting, hosted in St. Louis for the first time. It was great to see so many people…
November 7, 2018
Fishing for Human-Specific Isoforms
When scientists want to investigate human-specific evolution, the best place to start is often with a comparison to our closest cousins, the great apes. Some recent high-quality PacBio genome assemblies…
November 5, 2018
SMRT Grant Winner: Preventing Infection for Premmies
We’re pleased to announce the winner of the 2018 Microbial Genomics SMRT Grant. Mark Webber, Research Leader at Quadram Institute Bioscience in the UK, will get free SMRT Sequencing and…
November 1, 2018
Genetic Code of All Plants, Animals, Protozoa, and Fungi to be Sequenced with Help of PacBio
It’s one of the most ambitious sequencing projects ever attempted — the assembly of all 1.5 million known species of animals, plants, protozoa and fungi on Earth — and SMRT…
October 31, 2018
Smell of Success: Garlic Study Validates New Approach to Transcriptome Association
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) may be powerful tools for the identification of genes underlying complex traits, but what if you have an incredibly complex, uncharacterized genome, with no sequenced progenitor…
October 22, 2018
SMRT Sequencing and a Bit of Luck Help Swiss Microbiologists Solve Decades-Old Mystery
It’s a murder mystery of massive proportion, albeit on a miniature scale: Male-killing among several species of insects, caused by selfish symbiotic bacteria. Swiss researchers believe they have finally solved…
October 10, 2018
Sequel System 6.0 Release Offers a New Paradigm in DNA Sequencing: Highly Accurate Single-Molecule Long Reads
Today we’re pleased to announce the release of Sequel System 6.0, including new software, consumable reagents and a new SMRT Cell. Combined, the enhancements in the release improve the performance and affordability of…
October 8, 2018
Data Release: Highest-Quality, Most Contiguous Individual Human Genome Assembly to Date
We’re proud to announce the release of the most contiguous diploid human genome assembly of a single individual to date, representing the nearly complete DNA sequence from all 46 chromosomes…