Blog
September 13, 2017
New Insights in Soil Ecology: SMRT Sequencing Powers Genome Assembly of Parthenogenetic Arthropod
In a recent BMC Genomics paper, scientists in the Netherlands report a high-quality genome assembly for Folsomia candida, a soil-dwelling arthropod. The organism, which is known for reproducing parthenogenetically (and…
September 11, 2017
At PMLS Meeting, a Focus on Boosting Genomic Representation of Ethnic Diversity
A panel session at the recent Precision Medicine Leaders Summit, held in San Diego last month, offered great perspectives on the need to better represent global ethnic diversity in order…
September 6, 2017
CRISPR/Cas9 and SMRT Sequencing Yield New Phenotype Association for SCA10 Repeat Expansion Disorder
A compelling new paper from scientists at the Parkinson’s Institute and Clinical Center, Houston Methodist Research Institute, and several other organizations demonstrates the importance of fully sequencing repeat expansion regions…
September 5, 2017
Medical-Grade Psychotropic May Be Feasible Thanks to New Genomics Study
A recent paper in the journal Angewandte Chemie describes using SMRT Sequencing to characterize biosynthesis of a psychotropic product in Psilocybe carpophores, better known as magic mushrooms. Scientists from the Hans…
August 31, 2017
Sequel System Data Release: Iso-Seq Results for Hummingbird and Zebra Finch Brain Tissue
If you’re interested in avian vocal learning or want to explore a PacBio Iso-Seq data set generated with the Sequel System, we have good news. We’ve just released data from…
August 28, 2017
With Iso-Seq Study, Scientists Reveal Complexity of Rabbit Transcriptome
A new paper in Scientific Reports presents results from a transcriptome analysis for Oryctolagus cuniculus. The work was done with SMRT Sequencing, which allowed scientists to discover novel transcripts and…
August 24, 2017
Software Tools Optimized for Long Reads Improve Detection of Complex Structural Variants
[Update April 30, 2018: This paper is now published in Nature Methods.] Sniffles and NGMLR, structural variant detection and alignment algorithms developed in the Schatz lab for long-read sequence data,…
August 15, 2017
In Bake-Off, SMRT Sequencing Generates Highest-Quality, Cost-Effective Bacterial Assembly
Scientists from the University of Hong Kong recently reported results of a head-to-head comparison of long-read and short-read platforms for sequencing and assembly of a bacterial genome. They determined that…
August 9, 2017
Iso-Seq Analysis Reveals Differential Expression in Male and Female Abalones
Earlier this year, scientists from Korea reported results from a transcriptome study of Pacific abalone. In this paper, the team used SMRT Sequencing to demonstrate that alternative splicing and gene…
August 7, 2017
SMRT Sequencing Shines at ISAG: First Sequel System Bovine Genome Presented
If you weren’t at the 36th International Society for Animal Genetics Conference in Dublin, you missed more than a chance to drink Guinness and practice an Irish brogue. The PacBio…
August 3, 2017
At Baltimore UGM, New Tools and Research Breakthroughs with SMRT Sequencing
We were delighted to be back at the University of Maryland this summer for our annual East Coast User Group Meeting. The day-long event, preceded by half-day workshops on sample…
August 1, 2017
To Resolve KIR Region, Scientists Pair SMRT Sequencing with Fosmid Cloning
A paper from scientists at the National Marrow Donor Program, Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and other institutions reports the use of…
July 27, 2017
At SMBE 2017, SMRT Sequencing Fuels Genome Assemblies for Evolution Studies
We enjoyed attending the annual meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution in Austin earlier this month. Some 1,500 people attend SMBE, which this year offered cutting-edge sessions…
July 20, 2017
‘A Quiet Revolution’: SMRT Sequencing Powers Increasing Genome Assembly Quality
A news article in Science magazine nicely captures the improvements in the quality of genome assemblies made possible by long-read sequencing and other methods. “New technologies boost genome quality” was…
July 19, 2017
New Assembly for Complex Bread Wheat Genome: 10 Times Higher Contiguity
UPDATE: This preprint is now published! Check it out in the November 2017 issue of GigaScience. In a new bioRxiv preprint, scientists from Johns Hopkins present a major step forward…