A Visual Guide to DNA Sequencing
asimov.pressI worked in this space for over a decade. It's so weird to me to see the workhorse sequencing hardware like the ABI 37x/37xx series, 454, and Illumina machines now as literal museum pieces.
Agreed. Seeing million dollar sequencers on ebay for a few thousand bucks makes me want to reach for my wallet, but the I realize there are no reagents for it anyway.
Back in 1999 I joked that the ABI 3700 looked like a $300K mini fridge. Now you could actually get one on eBay and convert one for cheap.
I culture fungus, perform DNA extraction, run PCR (polymerase chain reaction - the process used to clone the gene(s) I want to sequence), and gel electrophoresis in my home lab. I then ship tubes of the DNA to mclab.com where for about $3 per sample, they'll run sanger sequencing and email me the data the next day. Works great for DNA barcoding and plasmid sequencing.
Nice writeup, but missing 2 newer sequencers:
Roche's Sequencing By Expansion platform and UltimaGenomics' platform
(edited for clarity)
Yes, they are only mentioned in the last section. Other notable misses would be Ion Torrent and MGI. Still a nice article with a focus on the key technologies.
We need PC revolution for biology. Put a box on every table we can tinker with.
The equipment necessary is broadly within the range that early PCs were. There's just a lot fewer biohackers than there were computer hackers.
You can get a USB sequencer for about 150 bucks
So it's not just a strong magnifying glass and tiny tweezers?
The nanopore technique described towards the end is not that far from your description.
they kinda tried that and it is my understanding that it sucks. One example of "direct linear mapping":
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5080/78a97f4778eee488e11032...