Dominic Halliwell from the University of Bath in the UK presented at London Calling 2024 on “Direct sequencing of cytosine modification states from nanopore long-read data.” They are a doctoral student and were partially funded by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT). Halliwell spoke about 5mC, 5hmC, and later oxidation derivatives, emphasizing that genome methylation can be dynamic. Halliwell has compared long-read sequencing with ONT to orthologous techniques. Halliwell found that at the base level, there are similar patterns between ONT and other methods. They also found significant correlations between enriched and depleted loci. Halliwell also performed direct sequencing of an immuno-precipitated sample. This technique was used to “internally validate” enriched regions. Halliwell noted that duplex modified base calls give molecule-level detail. With this, symmetrical and asymmetrical strand modifications can be studied. Halliwell is interested in the biological significance of asymmetrical strand modifications. I had not considered this!
