Thursday, April 28, 2016

Genia Publishes Platform Progress

Nanopore sequencing developer Genia published in PNAS last week a study demonstrating the basics of their current approach to sequencing.  I say current, because Genia has gone through a number of iterations and on at least two occasions promised to be going into beta in a 6-9 month timeframe.   The paper demonstrates the basic concepts of a sequencing system and generates some short reads, but also suggests that Genia won't be hitting beta sites in the near future either.

Tuesday, April 05, 2016

Protein Homeostasis: Has it Hit The Classrooms Yet?

I wrote a piece earlier this year suggesting that introductory Biology textbooks should emphasize protein complexes more.  My basis for assuming that they generally don't isn't very good: a single textbook in use in TNG's high school class, which sports a copyright date from a decade ago. I also remember what I was taught in high school and college courses, which I would rate as not bad and truly excellent (respectively), plus I was a teaching fellow for one semester of intro bio at Harvard.  I now have another suggestion to cram into every biology course: an overview of ubiquitin-proteasome system.

Sunday, April 03, 2016

Mosquito Genomes: Chance for Long-Range Companies to Shine

Friday's New York Times carried a front-page illustration of the current status of the Aedes aegyptii genome, accompanying an Amy Harmon story on efforts to improve the currently highly fragmented state of this genome

The pice has seen a lot of opinion on Twitter with regard to its value and other issues (such as calling an assembly a map -- which to me is correct as the perfect genome sequence is the ultimate physical map!)