Blog & Webinar

 

We are excited to announce that IGATech will be showcasing our latest innovations at two prestigious conferences this year: SIGA2024 and FISV2024.

The project is financed by Region Friuli Venezia Giulia - PR FESR 2021-2027 with a contribution of 211.310,02 €. CUP code – D29J23000010007

Gain insight into the core-citrus carposphere microbiome composition and function. 

All in one: structural, nucleotide, and epigenetic variations via ultra-long nanopore reads with phase information.

Sequencing by Avidity on the AVITI System – Demonstrating Performance and Data Quality over Diverse Applications

Gene Therapy (GT) achieved remarkable results in treating monogenic diseases deemed incurable by conventional medicine.

 

IGA Live Webinar n.2, was on 11th July, we are sorry we missed you!

16S rRNA sequencing is fast and cost-effective approach used to investigate microbiome communities, yet it suffers some inefficiencies. The major problem encountered is eukaryotic host contamination, i.e. >80% of 16S reads can be wasted due to off target amplification from the host’s genome. While this problem is well known to those who work with plants, it seems to be underestimated in the human sector.

The implementation of the EU Farm to Fork Strategy will require an environmentally-friendly utilization of existing natural resources to secure sustainable food production, including a fair use of agricultural land. To reach the 2030 targets, growers will need to change agronomic practices, including soil management, and minimize the use of chemical inputs, the consequences of which on soil microbial communities and plant nutrition are currently unknown.

Pleased to present the winning proposal “Understanding tumor and microenvironmental heterogeneity in primary and secondary cancers by single-cell RNA-seq” sent by the 31 y/o post-doctoral research fellow Elena Campaner from the University of Trieste.

Deep sequencing of entire population of expressed miRNAs in a given sample simultaneously queries thousands of miRNA sequences with extraordinary sensitivity and ability to detect novel ones. In general, the approach is used to give insights in how post-transcriptional regulation contribute to phenotype and for the discovery and development of novel biomarkers for diagnostic testing. In addition, given its extreme sensitivity, miRNA-seq is suitable for detection of both RNA and DNA viruses, as well as viroids that can be missed using targeted detection methods. 

DNA metabarcoding, i.e. targeted sequencing of taxonomically informative genetic markers, is an efficient method for the assessment and monitoring of biological diversity. Microbiome research is rapidly advancing boosted by sequencing of 16S rRNA gene and ITS region, while the noninvasively surveying plant and animal species richness from different ecosystems is nowadays routinely achieved through the sequencing of plastid or mitochondrial loci such as rbcL, matK and COI or cox1. 

Since studies related to COVID-19 are attracting great scientific interest, we recently focused our activities in recovery of viral sequences from swab samples by two methods: amplicon-Seq and RNA-Seq (using Trio RNA-Seq library preparation kit by Tecan Genomics as reported in our previous post).

critical factors to consider for deep sequencing from clinical samples

Proud to announce that we are keeping our quality standards high by qualifying again above the mean in the external quality assessment of NextGen DNA Sequencing by the European Molecular Genetics Quality Network (EMQN).

Sequencing of the SARS-Cov2 genomes using standard RNA-Seq strategies has been so far mainly achieved using viral culture or BALF, providing adequate viral copies as input template. However, for large-scale surveys of genome mutations, their spread, along with the ability to assess potential co-infections, the analysis of common swab samples with an unbiased RNA-Seq approach is an ideal solution, potentially, for any respiratory infection. 

Sequencing coverage in exome-seq is one of the major issues since a small difference in percentage coverage may significantly impact diagnostic outcome.