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posted by janrinok on Thursday May 21 2015, @11:26PM   Printer-friendly

[Editor's Comment: This article might sound a bit like a soyvertisement but it has been submitted by one of our community and someone who is well qualified in his field - David Eccles from the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in New Zealand. It is interesting to read about what is considered currently to be state of the art in field genome sequencing.]

On the 14th and 15th of May, 2015, Oxford Nanopore Technologies held their inaugural nanopore sequencing conference, London Calling. The conference was set up to inform people about the current progress of Oxford Nanopore's first sequencing device, the muesli bar-sized, USB-powered MinION. Over 250 people were in attendance at the conference, representing 35 countries, including two from New Zealand: Nicole Moore from Environmental Science and Research, and David Eccles from the Malaghan Insititute of Medical Research. Over the course of two days, these attendees discovered how the MinION is quietly turning the world of sequencing inside out.

Everything needed for sample preparation and sequencing can fit into a single piece of checked luggage on an airplane. The MinION is robust enough to make it across unsealed roads to remote parts of Africa, where it has been used for sequencing on-location during the Ebola outbreak. The MinION has also been put through its paces for tracking the traffic of organisms. Detection at the species level can be achieved in under 20 minutes of sequencing, and very subtle changes for the same species from different origins can be identified in less than an hour.

Clive Brown, Chief Technical Officer for Oxford Nanopore Technologies, gave a brief summary of what is to come in the near future of nanopore sequencing:

  • A fast mode for sequencing, allowing a human genome to be sequenced with high reliability in a 2-day run.
  • An improved Mk II sequencer, with six time the throughput and six times the run time of the first sequencer.
  • A clip-on sample preparation laboratory (Voltrax), allowing preparation and sequencing directly from blood in 20 minutes.
  • Time-based pricing, reducing the minimum cost of a single-molecule sequencing run to $50.
  • A 48-cell desktop sequencing device (PromethION) that can produce over 6 terabases of sequence per day, making sample preparation time the slowest part of the sequencing process.
 
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  • (Score: 2) by TLA on Friday May 22 2015, @02:05PM

    by TLA (5128) on Friday May 22 2015, @02:05PM (#186454) Journal

    Given the device's name, does it come in a giant Kinder egg wrapped in a pair of dungarees?

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