Antimicrobial resistance represents one of the major global threats to health and development. Mutations are the driving force of evolution, but their phenotype is defined by the existing molecular mechanisms inside cells. By focusing not only on the mutations that lead to adaptation, but also on those that do not, mechanisms that constrain evolution can […]
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The development of scalable and sensitive technologies, such as next generation sequencing (NGS) and quantitative PCR (qPCR), has revolutionized genomics by enabling nucleic acids of almost any sequence to be amplified and quantified with relative ease using standard chemistries, revealing contextual insights into the complete genome and transcriptome. Proteins, on the other hand, the study […]
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RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) is a powerful method for studying the transcriptome qualitatively and quantitatively; it can be used to identify the full catalog of transcripts, precisely define the structure of genes, and accurately measure gene expression levels. Traditional RNA-Seq approaches typically require at least 10,000 cells or 500 ng of total RNA per sample. For […]
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Under intense pressure to develop cell and gene therapies on tight timelines, biotech companies are encountering common bottlenecks for discovery and scale-up. Therapies using adeno-associated virus (AAV) for gene delivery provide an interesting case study. AAV has many desirable properties as a therapeutic vector, but structural features of its genome can thwart traditional methods for […]
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Interactive Assay Selection Tool Today’s molecular biologists have many options to interrogate their genome or transcriptome of interest. Next generation sequencing (NGS), quantitative PCR (qPCR), digital PCR (dPCR), and Sanger sequencing are used widely in genomics; however, choosing the best tool for your project isn’t always intuitive. For example, these four technologies provide valuable insights […]
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The ultimate value of an RNA-Seq experiment comes from data analysis. Next generation sequencing (NGS) experiments generate a tremendous amount of data which—unlike Sanger sequencing results—can’t be directly analyzed in any meaningful way. With help from modern computing, scientists aim to extract as much useful information as possible from RNA-Seq results while avoiding misinterpretation or bias. Selecting […]
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Azenta Life Sciences and PacBio® held a virtual symposium titled Decoding the Complexity of Human Health – A HiFi Vision on October 5, 2021 that explored applications of high-fidelity (HiFi) long-read sequencing within human biomedical research. Speakers from top academic research labs and biotech shared their cutting-edge work with this next generation sequencing (NGS) technology. Here, we recap […]
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The adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a powerful vehicle for gene therapy; however, working with AAV vectors can be challenging. Each construct contains two inverted terminal repeat (ITR) sequences, usually 145 bp in length, that flank the gene of interest (see figure below). The ITRs form highly stable T-shaped hairpins, which are critical for the replication […]
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RNA-Seq libraries can be stranded or non-stranded (unstranded). How you prepare the libraries affects the data generated from next generation sequencing (NGS) and its interpretation. In a nutshell, stranded RNA-Seq (also referred to as strand-specific or directional RNA-Seq) enables you to determine the orientation of the transcript, whereas this information is lost in non-stranded, or standard, RNA-Seq. […]
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The output for Sanger sequencing is typically a chromatogram, also known as a trace or ab1 file, and a text-based sequence file. Although the latter may seem to hold all the relevant information—after all, the point of sequencing is to get a sequence—the former can’t be ignored. The chromatogram contains valuable data that speaks to the accuracy […]
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