I reached the London Calling 2024 session for the “10 years of nanopore sequencing applications.” Sissel Juul, VP of Applications, spoke about what the technology has enabled. The applications team worked on inspiring the community, showcasing the technology, and driving applications. Now, Juul noted, the team works with the community. Since 2014, the technology has evolved. Pore-C was worked on in 2018, for example. In September 2014, the Lambda burn-in took place in New York. Six hundred and forty-eight sequences were produced. They also sequenced deli meats from New York to identify the animals. For human genetics, telomere-to-telomere sequencing is becoming more routine. Juul explained that metagenome assemblies can be assembled and evaluated with dot plots. Juul and team sequenced unpasteurized milk and produced a metagenome assembled genome. Now, on one PromethION flow cell and using metaMDBG and Sambin, hundreds of MAGs can be produced. Juul shared genomes assembled from metagenomic samples with almost identical sequences with different methylation patterns or missing antibiotic resistance genes. In March 2016, the team obtained 1 Gbase of data. That is wild: in class last week we obtained 20, 10+, and 12, Gbases of data! Repeat expansions can now be counted with Straglr software, and TRViz can help visualize motif switches. Juul spoke about cell free DNA and how in 2021 they obtained a sample from their CEO, learning that cell-free DNAs have lengths that vary. Fragmentomics and methylation analyses can help understand the biological significance of cell-free DNA and now RNA. Juul then spoke about open chromatin analyses and methylation. New multi-omics assays, both in microbial and human contexts, provide new opportunities for innovation.
