Ultima Launches
As part of the run-up to Gold sponsorship at AGBT, Ultima Genomics held a multi-day event in early December, with tours of the headquarters facility and factory floor in the Bay Area and a day at a beautiful Wine Country resort. The resort session included talks from the company, early access collaborators and a pair of big name early backers, with a few hundred current customers and many contemplating the leap. So confident was the company in their product, they even invited abloggerto moderate one of the panel discussions! The UG100 is now officially launched as a fully commercial product, with ambitions to replace...
Source: Omics! Omics! - February 1, 2024 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
On Illumina's Moats Past & Present
Studying how Illumina came to dominate sequencing markets is certainly worthy of at least a Harvard Business School case study, and perhaps an entire graduate thesis. But I wanted to give a quick review of some of my thoughts on the matter, spurred by Nava Whiteford'srepeated savaging of a piece in another space but also because many of these themes will show up in a flurry of pieces I'm planning (one's even nearly done!) in the next few weeks due to AGBT and some non-AGBT news. Read more » (Source: Omics! Omics!)
Source: Omics! Omics! - January 29, 2024 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
2024: A Look Ahead
It's January, and that means the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference looms next week -- followed by AGBT just a month later. Indeed, I've been trying to mark out the"can't miss" talks for AGBT so I can resist over-scheduling them with meet-ups -- but many talks lack titles so that's not easy. JP Morgan seems to have Illumina, 10X and Nanostring -- and not much else in the way of sequencing-space companies. But time to prognosticate before all the news happens!Read more » (Source: Omics! Omics!)
Source: Omics! Omics! - January 5, 2024 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
Should PacBio Abandon Their Set List?
In a piece on LinkedIn,Brian Krueger made a pithy comment that should give PacBio management pause. In a series of bulletpoints he summarized key things he had heard from ASHG, and the one for PacBio starts with"And PacBio threw a party". Parties with name musical acts has been modus operandi for PacBio Sales& Marketing for a number of years now, but I hope they seriously think about whether this is a good use of marketing dollars. But fear not dear leader: if they do listen to Brian& I it's probably much too late to derail any plans for AGBT.Read more » (Source: Omics! Omics!)
Source: Omics! Omics! - November 26, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
Concept: An Oxford Nanopore Adaptive Sequencing IDE
Oxford Nanopore's adaptive sequencing scheme is truly singular (but not Singular!), enabling computational adjustment of the sequencing process as it occurs. A number of academics have demonstrated proofs-of-concept of different ways this capability can be used, with Oxford Nanopore slowly incorporating some of these higher level concepts into their MinKNOW operating software. An idea has been rattling around in my head since London Calling that wha t this space truly needs is a full Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to support adaptive sequencing. It's more than a little conceited for me to do this, ...
Source: Omics! Omics! - October 31, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
Chatting Apton Acquisition with PacBio CEO Christian Henry
PacBio CEO Christian Henry chatted with me recently by teleconference on a variety of topics, but the focus was the recent PacBio acquisition of Apton Biosystems for $85M in equity. As a regular reminder, my employer’s CEO reports in a sense to Henry, as he’s on the Board of Directors. A particularly interesting revelation by Henry is that PacBio had its eye on Apton in late 2021, essentially as soon as they completed theOmniome acquisition announced in July 2021 that formed the foundation for their now-released Onso short read instrument. PacBio believed then that the desktop instrument design from Omniome...
Source: Omics! Omics! - September 19, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
Two More Automation Partners Join PacBio Compatible Program
A significant challenge for the long read sequencing vendors has been that short read sequencing has a decade and a half head start in evolving a tools ecosystem. New entrants such as Singular Genomics and Element Biosciences can take the strategy of building short bridges to existing tools designed for Illumina whereas the long read players must often build anew, as tools and protocols sufficient for short reads often are lacking performance on long reads . At J.P. Morgan in January, PacBio had announced a PacBio Compatible program to highlight products which specifically support PacBio sequencing. This morning, tw...
Source: Omics! Omics! - September 7, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
Apton (Super) Resolution to Be Acquired Fulfilled by PacBio
Wednesday night brought the news that Pacific Biosciences has both officially launched their Onso desktop short read sequencer and bought technology for a high throughput version of it by acquiring Apton Biosystems. Apton had been developing their own short read chemistry and an instrument based on super0resolution imaging to go with it and was apparently relatively close to launch. PacBio got Apton for $110M, with $85 paid now in PacBio stock and the remaining $25M"stock and cash add-ons" according to GenomeWeb (premium/free via ex-Twitter) - so presumable based on certain milestones being met. Read mor...
Source: Omics! Omics! - August 4, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
Overheard in a Thai Restaurant
An amusing incident happened on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend that is a reminder that even when there are no walls the walls in the Boston area can have biotech-tuned ears. Oh, and a funny quirk of fate that I swear I'm not making up.Read more » (Source: Omics! Omics!)
Source: Omics! Omics! - July 31, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
Illumina: Where Was the Board?
Sunday brought news that Francis deSouza had resigned as CEO of Illumina. It at first might have seemed he had survived the boardroom challenge from activist investor Carl Icahn, losing only one ally - Board Chairman John Thompson. But that apparently effectively made him a lame duck, and he is now leaving immediately -- leaving no one at the helm of Illumina momenta rily but also eliminating any interference from deSouza with the installation of his successor. If you have access to STAT+,Matt Herper's commentary is very informative (I'd expect nothing less).Read more » (Source: Omics! Omics!)
Source: Omics! Omics! - June 12, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
London Calling 2023
Read more » (Source: Omics! Omics!)
Source: Omics! Omics! - June 6, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
Called Back To London Again
After a too long pandemic-induced hiatus, I'm in the UK for this year's edition of London Calling. I talked myself out of going last year well in advance, which would have beeninteresting as my rapid tests were still coming up positive about the time I would have needed to fly from Boston over the Atlantic. And while I've been watching remotely, I've been dismal over the past year in actually writing anything about it. Which was foolish on my part as ONT has been going through an interesting transition.Read more » (Source: Omics! Omics!)
Source: Omics! Omics! - May 17, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
Thoughts on Unexpected Sequences Found In COVID mRNA Vaccines
Writing this piece is not easy, not only because the topic matter is completely in controversies around SARS-CoV-2 and the vaccines for it, but because the data was generated by someone whose outspoken opinions on any COVID-19 public health topic are nearly always ones I find myself in opposition to. Someone who periodically lobs my way personal attacks on my ethics. It doesn't help that these results will be certainly misused to attempt to undermine public confidence in the vaccines, or that this post will probably attract a lot of commentary that I don't wish to address because of the adage that generating m...
Source: Omics! Omics! - March 21, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
Is Illumina Delivering the MVP of Long Reads?
At AGBT last week Illumina released additional details on their still incubating Complete Long Reads (CLR) product (formerly known as Infinity) but is still holding back both some interesting technical information as well as exact performance specifications. Illumina is already floating some of their marketing messages, which in some cases are dependent on some of those still-in-flux specifications and some of the claims may not withstand careful scrutiny. And Illumina continues to make statements that irritate anyone with deep technical knowledge of the long read space. The reaction by attendees was definitely mixe...
Source: Omics! Omics! - February 21, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
What's AGBT Like?
AGBT begins in less than 24 hours, and the signs are everywhere here at the Diplomat Resort in Hollywood Florida. I arrived Friday with family, and the count of old friends I've chatted with is steadily climbing. If you somehow forgot about the meeting, the insides of the elevator doors will remind you. This is the fifth time I've attended in person, plus heavy monitoring of about twice as many via Twitter. It's one of the premier events of the genomics conference schedule, and if you haven't been it's certainly fair to ask why? Or whether you would want to go to a future edition? So I'...
Source: Omics! Omics! - February 5, 2023 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Keith Robison Source Type: blogs
