- Union Minister Science and Technology and Earth Sciences has inaugurated the Next Generation Sequencing(NGS) facility at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad.
- Genome sequencing means determining the order of the four chemical building blocks called bases that make up the DNA molecule.
- Genome sequencing helps to understand how genes work together to direct the growth,development and maintenance of an organism.It helps to determine unique genetic traits,susceptibility and resilience to diseases.
- Next generation sequencing (NGS) is a new method for sequencing genomes at high speed and at low cost.It is also known as massively parallel sequencing(MPS).
- The NGS would help prenatal genetic screening and counselling, thereby generating large scale genomic data critical for diagnosis and therapy.It would be of help especially to patients suffering from rare genetic disorders.
- Further,the NGS facility at the CCMB can sequence 18,000 samples in 8 minutes.With this,the CCMB can now sequence up to 30 human genomes or 384 diagnostic samples in a day.
