As a term, “next generation plant breeding” is increasingly becoming popular in crop breeding programmes, conferences, scientific fora and social media (Schnable, 2013). Being a frontier area of crop science and business, it is gaining considerable interest among scientific community and policymakers and funds flow from entrepreneurs and research funding agencies. Plant breeding is a continuous...

In this issue of Neurology® Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation, Salzberg et al report on the results of a small prospective study of the application of nextgeneration sequencing (NGS) of RNA and DNA extracted from brain biopsy tissue specimens obtained from 10 patients with suspected neuroinfectious disease processes. In 3 patients, the NGS results, which included JC virus, Epstein-Barr virus,...

On February 20, 2015, as part of the Precision Medicine Initiative, announced by President Obama, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a meeting at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) all day. The meeting was titled ‘‘Optimizing FDA’s Regulatory Oversight of Next Generation Sequencing Diagnostic Tests’’ (Food and Drug Administration, 2015). The meeting convened thought leaders in lab...

Next generation sequencing platforms are producing biological sequencing data in unprecedented amounts. The partners of the International Nucleotide Sequencing Database Collaboration, which includes the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), and the DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ), have established the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) to prov...

Recent scientific discoveries that resulted from the application of next-generation DNA sequencing technologies highlight the striking impact of these massively parallel platforms on genetics. These new methods have expanded previously focused readouts from a variety of DNA preparation protocols to a genome-wide scale and have fine-tuned their resolution to single base precision. The sequencing...

Next generation sequencing raises new questions within the context of an existing and still evolving regulatory landscape for device manufacturers and clinical laboratories. FDA cleared the first NGS sequencing platform in November 2013, but it is unclear what lies ahead for this technology. NGS will require new types of training and expertise to interpret the vast quantities of genetic data so...

Next generation sequencing (NGS), massively parallel or deep sequencing are related terms that describe a DNA sequencing technology which has revolutionised genomic research. Using NGS an entire human genome can be sequenced within a single day. In contrast, the previous Sanger sequencing technology, used to decipher the human genome, required over a decade to deliver the final draft. Although ...

Despite the small sample size that often complicates research into diseases that affect children, recent genome sequencing efforts have made astounding progress in discovering the underlying genetic causes of pediatric diseases, many of which were previously unpredicted. This Select highlights recent genetic findings that provide clear insights into disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets th...

Next-generation high-throughput DNA sequencing techniques are opening fascinating opportunities in the life sciences. Novel fields and applications in biology and medicine are becoming a reality, beyond the genomic sequencing which was original development goal and application. Serving as examples are: personal genomics with detailed analysis of individual genome stretches; precise analysis of ...