helicos
dgmacarthur | April 29, 2010A paper just released in the Lancet describes a thorough and integrated approach to squeezing as much clinically relevant information as possible out of a genome sequence. However, despite a state-of-the-art clinical interpretation pipeline, the major message from the paper is just how far we still have to go before we can make full use of our genetic information.
The paper is based on the genome of Stephen Quake (right), which was sequenced using the single-molecule platform developed by Helicos (I wrote about Quake's genome publication at the time). This is a rather curious choice: of all…
dgmacarthur | August 12, 2009The announcement of the Helicos genome sequence (which I've already discussed in detail) engendered a huge amount of media interest, sometimes for the wrong reasons.
Having the media attention directed elsewhere in the third-generation sequencing space was clearly an unwelcome experience for Helicos competitors Pacific Biosciences, who have responded with a press release announcing the successful raising of $68M to finance further development of their single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing platform.
To be fair, raising that sort of capital in the current economic climate is no mean…
dgmacarthur | August 11, 2009David Dooling has an entertaining take on the Helicos genome sequence I discussed yesterday entitled "Another rich white guy sequences own genome".
I noted in my post yesterday that the alleged price drop for the Helicos sequence over current technologies was an illusion, but David includes a much more thorough analysis of the relative genome sequencing costs thrown around over the last couple of days and makes it very clear that the price Helicos is quoting is really no advance over the current prices for second-generation sequencing technologies:
They report reagent costs that are on par…
dgmacarthur | August 10, 2009Pushkarev, D., Neff, N., & Quake, S. (2009). Single-molecule sequencing of an individual human genome Nature Biotechnology DOI: 10.1038/nbt.1561
Yes, it's yet another "complete" individual genome sequence, following on the heels of Craig Venter, James Watson, an anonymous African male (twice, and not without controversy), two cancer patients, a Chinese man, and two Koreans.
There is a new twist, though: this is the first genome to be sequenced using single molecule sequencing technology - also known as "third-generation" sequencing, to distinguish it from first-generation Sanger…