'Next-generation' sequencing poster and podcast
A revolution in genomic science is underway. The reign of Sanger sequencing is coming to an end as a new generation of sequencing technologies allows vastly greater volumes of sequence information to be produced quickly and at an ever-decreasing cost. Nature Reviews Genetics and Nature Genetics present a free poster and a podcast on next-generation sequencing technologies, their myriad applications and challenges for the future.
From Nature Reviews Genetics (9, 811;2008): 'Next-generation' is a catch-all term for a range of approaches that differ in the way templates are prepared, the sequencing chemistry itself and the methods used to generate a sequence read-out. The poster, authored by Michael Metzker, enables readers to quickly grasp the methods that form the basis of the leading commercially available technologies and explains how they provide such high-throughput information so rapidly. Understanding how these technologies work is also key to appreciating which approach is best suited to which application.
The podcast brings to listeners insights from an international group of leading researchers in genetic and genomic research, exploring how next-generation sequencing technologies are being applied to fields as diverse as cancer research, small RNA biology and population genetics. Change is predicted to be rapid. According to one interviewee, sixty times more data than have so far been held in the world's nucleotide databases will be generated in just a year by one project alone. Highlighting the excitement surrounding these technologies, a Nature news story revealed one company's plans to sequence individual human genomes for $1,000 within a year.
