If you are like most of us at PacBio you likely learned how to extract DNA in a high school or college biology class, or maybe even in your kitchen. But as you moved on to more high stakes experiments, you may have found that extracting DNA for sequencing in your lab isn’t always as straightforward as lyse, precipitate, wash, suspend. In this introduction to DNA extraction, we will share tips, tricks, and protocols to help make your DNA isolation easier! For optimal results to power biological discovery, sample prep is a critical step in any sequencing project. And with…
Starting a sequencing project can be daunting. First of all, there are several types of sequencing technologies, each based on unique processes. At PacBio, we use a technology called Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) Sequencing. Learn how SMRT Sequencing works in this short video: Although each sequencing project is unique, there are five main steps to go from DNA to discovery with SMRT Sequencing: Step 1: Sample Prep Similar to cooking, for the best results, start with the best ingredients. The ideal sequencing starter is high molecular weight DNA. There are plenty of kits on the market that…
We’d like to extend a sincere thanks to everyone who attended our two-day North America User Group Meeting, held this year at our Certified Service Provider, the University of Delaware Sequencing and Genotyping Center (@UD_DNAcore). With representation from 80+ organizations and over 160 attendees, the event was a great environment for sharing best practices and networking with the SMRT Sequencing community. Also, a big thanks to our host, Bruce Kingham (@bkingham) and team, as well as our partners: Agilent, Biosoft Integrators, Circulomics, Covaris, Diagenode, Perkin Elmer, Sage Science and Shoreline Biome. If you weren’t able to attend the meeting, we’ve…
Roche recently posted this recording of a webinar walking through long fragment capture with SMRT® Sequencing. “Long Genomic DNA Fragment Capture and SMRT Sequencing Enables Accurate Phasing of Cancer and HLA Loci” is a great backgrounder for scientists interested in using the Roche NimbleGen SeqCap EZ System for target enrichment prior to sequencing on the PacBio® system. The webinar features Denise Raterman from Roche NimbleGen and our own bioinformatics expert Lawrence Hon. Raterman provides a detailed review of the SeqCap EZ workflow, pointing out the specific steps that differ for SMRT Sequencing. The method can be used to capture up…
If you’d like to hear about the latest applications of SMRT® Sequencing from users, we have several events coming up. Our worldwide user group meetings and workshops feature PacBio users sharing their latest research, tips, and protocols, as well as our staff providing training and updates on products and methods to optimize your research. We’re always humbled by the quality and variety of science presented at these meetings. And for the bioinformatics crowd, we have a new event in August focused on developing new analytical tools for PacBio® data. Here’s more detail on each event, including registration details: Americas East…
If you missed our recent webinar on isoform sequencing with the PacBio® platform, we’ve made the full recording available for on-demand access. “Iso-Seq™ Method: Sample Prep and Experimental Design for Full-Length cDNA Sequencing” offers an overview of the application, along with specific sample prep tips, factors to consider when designing an experiment, and suggestions about what kinds of projects can take advantage of this method. Hosted by our own Tyson Clark, the webinar begins with a look at why it’s important to capture full-length transcripts. There are known human genes that have very different functions depending on which splice variant…
By Jonas Korlach, Chief Scientific Officer All of us at Pacific Biosciences are very proud of the momentum SMRT® Sequencing achieved in 2014, especially due to the more than 500 customer publications now in the literature describing its many applications. We remain deeply thankful to all the scientists who have applied our technology to gain new insights into genomes, transcriptomes, and epigenomes. By applying SMRT Sequencing to a wide variety of applications, our customers are demonstrating that long, unbiased reads have brought about new quality standards for many fields of genomic research. This exciting level of scientific activity and collaboration…
At the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai in New York City, technology development expert Robert Sebra, Ph.D., sees tremendous need for long-read, high-accuracy sequencing for use in microbial surveillance, detection of repeat expansions, and other research applications. To meet that demand, he relies on Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT®) Sequencing from Pacific Biosciences with BluePippin™ automated DNA size selection from Sage Science. Together, these tools offer a powerful solution and industry-leading read lengths that allow Sebra and other researchers to resolve repeat elements and structural variants, rapidly close microbial genomes, and measure epigenetic marks. Sebra, an…
At the McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre, many projects conducted in the sequencing core facility fall under the umbrella of life sciences rather than biomedical research. To the scientists responsible for making the core facility operate as smoothly as possible, that makes a world of difference. “When you’re in the life sciences in addition to human biomedical [research], you’re out there in the world of things that haven’t been sequenced before, or haven’t been sequenced particularly well,” says Ken Dewar, a principal investigator at the Innovation Centre. To navigate this type of uncharted territory, scientists at the center…
During our recent sample prep webinar, PacBio® scientists described new automated options for the 10 kb SMRTbell™ template preparation workflow. In case you didn’t have the chance to attend, here’s a quick recap. Watch the webinar: Automating PacBio 10 kb template preparation The webinar was hosted by Marty Badgett, our consumables product manager, with field application scientist Mike Weiand and technical support scientist Kristi Spittle Kim. The goal of the session was to introduce two new automation solutions that were developed based on interest from customers for more streamlined sample preparation. Both of the systems, available from PerkinElmer and Agilent Technologies,…
If you love long reads, you won’t want to miss this week’s webinar on sample prep for Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT®) Sequencing. We will focus on automation solutions for 10 Kb template preparation, including new high-throughput sample prep kits, compatible automated liquid handling platforms, and sample data. Register now for the webinar, with your choice of times: Tuesday, April 1 5:00 p.m. PDTWednesday, April 2 8:00 a.m. PDT Our presenters will be PacBio scientists Kristi Spittle Kim and Michael Weiand. Kristi, an applications scientist in our technical support group, has been working in the genomics field since 2006. At PacBio,…