By Aaron Krol
February 29, 2016 | NanoString Technologies, a Seattle
company with a small but comfortable niche in automated genetic
analysis, is preparing to make the leap into DNA and RNA sequencing. The
company revealed its novel sequencing process in a poster at the
Advances in Genome Biology and Technology meeting, held in Orlando, Fla.
earlier this month.
NanoString’s proposed sequencer is closely related to its current
line of nCounter instruments, which target short genetic sequences with
optically barcoded hybridization probes. In an nCounter experiment, a
set of probes designed to bind with a specific group of genetic
elements―for example, segments of genes that are commonly overexpressed
in cancer―is mixed with a DNA or RNA sample. Each probe carries a unique
sequence of fluorescent tags, the optical barcodes that are imaged to
learn which genetic targets are present in the sample, and in what
numbers.
The new sequencing process, named Hyb and Seq, uses very similar
probes. But instead of just spotting key genes and variants, a Hyb and
Seq experiment can read huge volumes of barcodes to recover the complete
sequence of a DNA molecule.
Read the full story at Bio-IT World.