The studio interviews at London Calling 2024 I watched tonight focused on clinical and translational applications. Zoe McDougall asked the three interviewees about the highlights of the updates talk. Ewan Birney director of EMBL-EBI in the UK spoke about the quality updates. Justin O’Sullivan from Liggins Institute at the University of Auckland in New Zealand explained that the power of multi-omics approaches with Oxford Nanopore Technologies will be important in the future. Kathleen Barnes, Senior Vice President of Precision Health and Precision Medicine at Oxford Nanopore Technologies, discussed the voltage chip and fifteen-minute genomes. Barnes noted that the work of scientists and providers to sequence on site even in remote locations. Barnes thinks adaptive sampling and long-read transcriptomics are exciting applications that improve personal health. O’Sullivan talked about sequencing of family genomes to address genetic diseases. They noted that “social license” and paying attention to the social implications of personal genomics will be essential. Birney added that methylation and on-site sequencing will be applications that can be routinely performed on-site. O’Sullivan was excited about learning more about long-read transcriptomics to identify different isoforms… and how this technology will force us to revisit the concept of a “gene.” Birney wanted to know more about modification detection.
