MinION Sequencing of Colorectal Cancer

 

    As the new generation is coming, new devices are also developing. The MinION sequencer is a small device that can sequence genomes. In a recent research study this device is used to find the sequence of colorectal cancer. 

    The study was published in 2020. The study compares different methods to find the genome of colorectal cancer. The sequences compared were MinION sequencing, rRNA sequencing, and 16s RNA sequencing. All used the same amount of DNA and RNA samples of colorectal tumor. The results have showed the rRNA sequencing can analyze more colorectal samples than MinION sequencing. According to the article, the sequencer can do, "Long-read sequences generated using MinION sequencing can compensate for low numbers of reads for bacterial classification. MinION sequencing can discriminate between bacterial strains and plasmids..." (Taylor et al 2020). This shows the MinION has its pros and cons as a sequencer as do the others. 

    Another great article that should be read along with this one would be 

'Microbiome Data Distinguish Patients with Clostridium difficile Infection and Non-C. difficile-Associated Diarrhea from Healthy Controls'.  It is a great read in which gives a little bit more of insight into the gut microbiome.