NGS (Next Gen Sequencing) Answers Ambitious Questions

[Sly Saint]

The cost of sequencing continues to decrease. Now is the right time to start using next-generation sequencing to answer your scientific questions and further your research goals

Novices Become Technology Embracers
Another postdoctoral fellow in the Grimson Lab at Cornell University, Louis Vu, PhD, was also inexperienced in NGS techniques, but wanted to use single-cell RNA-seq to take a broader look at the transcriptome of the immune system to get some insight into the mystery of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

Vu feels that the Cornell Core Lab/Facility can help him and his colleagues move on their hypotheses more quickly by looking at questions in an untargeted way. “Whenever I come up with an NGS experiment, I discuss it with the Cornell Core Lab/Facility,” Vu said. “They might have previously analyzed samples similar to ours, and they can help with multiple steps of the workflow. They are also helping me understand more on data analysis and manipulation.”

https://www.genengnews.com/sponsored/ngs-answers-ambitious-questions/

 

[Hubris]

I think analyzing the whole genome of severe ME patients to fish for rare genetic illnesses that can cause ME is a worthwhile thing to do. It's the inverse approach to GWAS. As far as I know not a single case of ME had the cause identified this way - however with other illnesses it certainly did happen. If you look at dementia patients, autism, parkinson's, there is always a small group with rare mutations causing it. I don't see why it shouldn't be the same for ME. I wonder who the world leaders are when it comes to this.