Pacific Biosciences of California Inc (PACB)

[Paulieme]

(shub) They are the best,if they can make smaller affordable units,to the moon! Long-Read Sequencing Data Enables Structural Variant Discovery For Clinical And Disease Research.September 11, 2017 - http://www.bio-itworld.com/2017/09/11/long-read-sequencing-data-enables-structural-variant-discovery-for-clinical-and-disease-research.aspx Sep 12, 2017-
Parkinson's Institute Team Uses CRISPR/Cas9 Capture and PacBio Sequencing to ID Repeat Expansions Standard genetic testing involved repeat prime PCR, which identified a repeat expansion in the ATXN10 gene in each affected family member. Repeat expansions in the ATXN10 gene have been implicated in SCA, but have not previously been linked to Parkinson's disease, so the researchers wanted to look deeper. Because the PCR-based technology could not span the entire repeat, the team turned to PacBio for its long reads, and the firm suggested using the CRISPR/Cas9 technology it was developing as a target enrichment method.

Such a target enrichment scheme is advantageous because it does not require amplification, "which is especially important in error-prone regions with repeat expansions," Schüle said. It enables regions that are difficult to amplify to be targeted and sequenced.

In order to use CRISPR/Cas9 for target enrichment, genomic DNA is first fragmented and a PacBio adaptor known as a SMRTbell is attached, per the standard PacBio library prep protocol, Jonas Korlach, PacBio's chief scientific officer, explained. Then, guide RNAs target and selectively cut just outside the region of interest. That generates target molecules that have one end with the original adaptor and a second end containing the sequence cut by Cas9. Next, a capture adaptor is ligated onto the cut end, so that only molecules containing the targeted region have those capture adaptors. And finally, magnetic beads and probes are used to capture just the target molecules, while the remaining DNA is washed away. The target molecules are then sequenced. https://www.genomeweb.com/sequencing/parkinsons-institute-team-uses-crisprcas9-capture-and-pacbio-sequencing-id-repeat