Sunday is Rare Disease Day – a time to honor the patients, families, caregivers, and healthcare professionals who are part of the rare disease community. At PacBio, we are passionate about supporting this community and providing tools that help improve the ability of scientists and clinicians to deliver valuable answers to families and reduce what can be a years-long diagnostic odyssey. And while each ‘rare’ disease may affect a limited number of people, collectively these diseases affect hundreds of millions of people around the world. Since we last celebrated this special day, we’ve been particularly excited by the progress made…
In an exciting new preprint, scientists from the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and the University of Alabama at Birmingham describe the use of PacBio highly accurate long-read sequencing to identify pathogenic variants responsible for previously undiagnosable, rare neurodevelopmental disorders. Lead author Susan Hiatt (@suzieqhiatt), senior author Gregory Cooper, and collaborators conducted genomic analyses of several family trios in an attempt to find causal genetic variants that had been missed with earlier studies. “Large fractions of [neurodevelopmental disorders] cannot be attributed to currently detectable genetic variation,” they report. “This is likely, at least in part, a result of the fact that…
It’s well known that finding the genetic cause of rare diseases can be complex — that’s why so many remain unsolved. But researchers are beginning to get a grasp on just how complex these conditions can be, thanks to the heightened power of PacBio. PacBio principal scientist Aaron Wenger kicked off a recent webinar with a quote from University of Washington scientist Evan Eichler, who said “there are three key aspects to genetic disease associations: comprehensive variant discovery, accurate allele-frequency determination, and an understanding of the pattern of normal variation and its effect on expression.” Wenger explained how HiFi reads…
As the flurry of research around the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues at an unprecedented pace, scientists are beginning to tackle some of the more complex immunological responses with the help of Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) sequencing. Hundreds of people tuned in live to a special May 7 webinar, “Understanding SARS-CoV-2 and host immune response to COVID-19 with PacBio sequencing.” Meredith Ashby, Director of Microbial Genomics at PacBio, described some of the resources being generated by both PacBio and our users in order to help labs who are using SMRT Sequencing technology to investigate SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. These include two microbial sequencing…
The rarest day on the calendar is February 29th — which makes it the perfect time to celebrate Rare Disease Day. On this day, we join millions of people around the world making time to honor the patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals and scientists who deal with rare diseases every day. Zoe Harting was diagnosed with Type 1 SMA and was not expected to live past the age of 2, but is now reaching unprecedented milestones as an energetic 7-year-old, thanks to an experimental treatment. And we didn’t have to look far to find someone affected. Bioinformation John Harting, of our…
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 a wide range of disciplines. As the year draws to a close, we have taken this opportunity to reflect on the many achievements made by members of our community, from newly sequenced plant and animal species to human disease breakthroughs. “It has been another phenomenal year for science. The introduction of the Sequel II System will accelerate discovery even more, and I can’t wait to see what 2020 will…
Patients with myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) want to know their size — the size of the expansion of repeats of the unstable CTG sequences that cause the progressive deterioration of neuromuscular functions that they might face. Size matters to them, because it has been found to correlate with the severity and onset of symptoms, which can range from severe cardiac and respiratory abnormalities and intellectual impairment in children, to muscle weakness, hypersomnolence or cataracts in adults. The earlier the onset, the more severe the symptoms tend to be. The autosomal disorder, which is the most common form of inherited…
Variety is the spice of life, and one of the drivers of genetic variation is gene splicing. After a gene is transcribed, there are alternatively spliced transcripts that add even more variety to that gene’s expression and its menu of phenotypes. It appears that there are types of disorders that take advantage of these varieties. Top amongst them are myeloid disorders, where somatic mutations in splicing factors lead to cell proliferation in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and blood cancers. Christopher R. Cogle, a physician-scientist at the University of Florida, would like to understand why, in hopes that such knowledge could be…
Seeking to sequence and characterize entire transcriptomes in one go? Our new Iso-Seq protocol and reverse-transcriptase PCR kit makes it easier, speedier and cheaper. Run on the new Sequel II System, the completely revamped Iso-Seq Express workflow achieves whole transcriptome characterization from a single SMRT Cell 8M delivering up to 400 Gb, and at a third of the cost, or less. Yield has also increased on the Sequel System, with 3.0 sequencing chemistry typically delivering up to 30 Gb per SMRT Cell 1M for our RNA sequencing application. The new protocol requires three times less RNA input (300 ng) and…
Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) Sequencing continues to get smarter and more powerful, with the recent launch of the Sequel II system increasing capabilities and efficiencies of the long-read DNA and RNA PacBio sequencing technology even further. In a special issue devoted entirely to the technology in the MDPI open access journal Genes, guest editors Adam Ameur of Uppsala University and Matthew S. Hestand of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center present eight articles highlighting research conducted using SMRT Sequencing. As this special issue demonstrates, the benefits of SMRT Sequencing to many different areas of research are becoming evident, not only…
Plasmodium falciparum Malaria is a complicated killer, and efforts to develop effective vaccines have been hindered by gaps in our understanding of both the parasite that causes the infection, Plasmodium falciparum, and its transmitter, the mosquito. Like many virulent parasites, P. falciparum has evaded close genetic scrutiny due to its complex and changing composition. Its 23 Mb haploid genome is extremely AT rich (~80%) and contains stretches of highly repetitive sequences, especially in telomeric and subtelomeric regions. To make matters more complicated, it expands its genetic diversity during mitosis via homologous recombination, leading to the acquisition of new variants of…
What can a cute, cuddly, stingless bee from the Brazilian rainforest teach us about eusociality and mitochondrial evolution? Natalia S Araujo wants to find out, and she’s not the only one. As the only bee species in which true polygyny (multiple fertile queens in the same colony) occurs, there is great interest in Melipona bicolor, and its mitochondrial genome (mt genome) was one of the first sequenced in bees. But the sequence was incomplete and lacked information about its mitochondrial gene expression pattern. So Araujo, a postdoctoral researcher of animal genomics in the GIGA Institute of the University of Liège,…
Scientists were certainly sequencing with confidence in 2018, as evidenced by the number of significant and wide-ranging advancements made using SMRT Sequencing technology, several of which made the cover of high-impact journals. As the year draws to a close, we have taken this opportunity to reflect on the many achievements made by members of our community, from newly sequenced plant and animal species to human disease breakthroughs that even captivated the popular press. “It’s been a phenomenal year for science. We are proud of our partners and honored that our technology is helping to drive such discovery across all…
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 in our basic understanding of human biology and in our ability to rapidly translate discoveries into clinical utility. ASHG 2018 attendees packed into the PacBio workshop. The PacBio team had the privilege of hosting an educational workshop about the value of long-read SMRT Sequencing for human genetic applications. Customers from Mount Sinai and Stanford University offered their perspectives, while PacBio scientists presented data and the technology roadmap. Here, we recap…
SMRT Art: Jewelry created from upcycled SMRT cells by Olga Pettersson. When was the last time you sent your DNA off to a day at the spa? Olga Pettersson of the SciLifeLab at Uppsala University lets her molecules relax for up to a week at room temperature to enable them to untangle, achieve better chemical purity, and better sequencing output. It was one of many practical pointers shared by presenters at the popular three-day gathering of PacBio users in Leiden, Netherlands last month. SMRT Leiden featured the scientific discoveries and analytical achievements of more than 30 speakers. Inge Kjaerbolling of…