Nabsys, Inc., a life sciences company pioneering development of solid-state single-molecule positional sequencing technology, today announced that data demonstrating the first direct electronic re-sequencing and mapping of DNA will be presented at the annual Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) meeting, February 15 to 18, on Marco Island, Fla., and the Omics and Personalized Medicine Conference at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), February 16 to 18, in Heidelberg, Germany.
Nabsys' positional sequencing platform uniquely reveals information about both the identity and location of DNA sequences through direct electrical detection of probes bound to single molecules that may be as large as hundreds of kilobases in length. Depending on how the methodology is deployed, the platform can be used to analyze the full size scale of DNA variation, including single-base resolved sequence, large scale genomic structural variants, chromosomal aneuploidies, and any combination of the above.
"Significant improvements have been made over the past few years in the speed, throughput and cost of generating DNA sequence information, creating great enthusiasm for applying sequencing technology in the clinic," said Barrett Bready, M.D., chief executive officer of Nabsys. "While these advances have been impressive and important, many applications of sequence data - in medicine as well as in basic biological research and agriculture - require similar levels of improvement in data accuracy, information content, reduced data and computational burden, and simplified workflow. The data we are presenting at AGBT and EMBL demonstrate what is possible with purely solid-state detection. These data provide insights into how the Nabsys positional sequencing platform, once scaled, has the potential to set new performance standards and open new markets for DNA sequence analysis."
In contrast to other approaches referred to as "nanopore sequencing," positional sequencing does not attempt to discriminate individual nucleotide bases passing through an electrical detector. Instead, the Nabsys approach involves hybridization of short oligonucleotide probes to very long DNA templates, passage of probe-bound templates through solid-state nanodetectors, and electronic detection of the locations of hybridized probes. By combining information on the positions of many such probes, it is possible to create detailed genomic maps with sparse probe coverage, or true de novo sequences of large genomes with dense probe coverage.
Positional sequencing does not require slowing down DNA translocation rates through nanodetectors. Information can thus be generated very rapidly over unprecedented length scales with a method that is inherently targeted, quantitative, and involves a simple workflow. The use of solid-state nanodetectors provides the basis for a platform that is highly scalable, with the potential for enormous advances in throughput, dramatically reduced data burden, and high volume manufacturing.
Data to be presented will demonstrate that Nabsys' nanodetector design and DNA preparation techniques enable:
- Analysis of single DNA molecules up to 50kb in length
- Mapping of probes with precision that greatly exceeds the diffraction limit of light
- Re-sequencing of targeted regions without a capture or enrichment step
- Analysis of genome structural variants