Tonight, I watched the London Calling 2024 session on Nanopore’s origins. The session was a panel with attendees and presenters in person and online. Dave Deamer was one person I was able to meet in person this summer. Dave Deamer spoke from the University of California, Santa Cruz, about the origins of life and nanopore analysis. Deamer tested the wetting and drying of solutions to form polymers and chains of nucleic acids. Using nanopores, Deamer and team sequenced nucleic acids. Mark Akeson from the University of California, Santa Cruz, spoke about twenty-five years of technology development. They explained how the nanopore sequencers are so tiny and light. They are capable of sequencing 100,000 times the length of the sensor. Akeson described the first experiments to confirm that DNA was translocated through the pore. Hagan Bayley from the University of Oxford explained the experiments leading to the crystal structure of the pore. Spike Willcocks, Chief Strategy Officer with Oxford Nanopore Technologies, spoke about forming the company and self-assembling the membranes. They did live demos. The nanopore sensing worked and inspired other scientists to continue pursuing this technology. Bayley is now working on volatile organic compounds and thinks proteins and polysaccharides will be the next stage. Akeson thinks that RNA sequencing will be revolutionary. Deamer thinks the sensing aspect of nanopore technologies will be used to learn about primitive life forms. He believes this will extend beyond our planet. Dan Branton from Harvard University and “The Godfather of Nanopore” urged people to not be afraid of pursuing what others think may not be possible. This is a great session and a good way to wrap up the Portable Genome Sequencing course. I will remember this video to share!
