Not all your DNA is the same.
In this study, published in Nature, Yale researchers discovered copy number variation (CNV) in skin cells, indicative that we are “mosaics” of cells with slightly different genomes. Next generation sequencing technology was used. You might think about it this way. If we had a million computers that were brand new, their hard drives would all...
Are dreams of Jurassic Park extinct?
A paper published October 10, 2012 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences attempts to measure the half life of DNA. (Full text not available for free but a good overview can be found here in Nature news.) By measuring the decay of mitochondrial DNA in bone samples of the extinct New Zealand...
USB-Sized DNA Sequencer by Oxford Nanopore
How quickly things change in the genomic world! Just over a month since Ion Torrent announced their next-generation Proton Sequencer, the technology may already be obsolete. This week, the first “nanopore” DNA sequencing Device was unveiled at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology conference by UK-based Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Nanopore sequencing works by...
Ion Torrent promises $1000 genome in 2012
DNA sequencing company Ion Torrent has promised that a new sequencer model they are introducing this year will be able to produce complete human genomes for $1000 in 2 hours. The device, which uses their optics-free, chip-based DNA sequencing technology, will be introduced later in the year and represents about a 10 fold improvement over...
World Map of High Speed Sequencers
One of the ways to keep track of where the next biotechnology breakthrough is about to occur is to map out key resources. Here’s a google map of where advanced high speed DNA sequencers are physically located.
