DNA sequencing refers to the process of identifying the order of bases in a strand of DNA. DNA is comprised of nucleotides, with each nucleotide consisting of a sugar, a phosphate group and a base.

In Helicos Biosciences’ method, individual DNA strands extracted from cells are sequenced by iterative cycles of base addition. Credit: Helicos Biosciences The first human genome sequence cost more ...

What if you could put a few bacterial cells into a USB stick, plug it into your laptop, and get back a complete DNA sequence in a matter of minutes? Oxford Nanopore has built a USB device that will do ...

Even as species diverge, they retain some common genomic elements, perhaps none as stubbornly constant as ultraconserved elements (UCEs). UCEs tend to consist of fairly lengthy stretches of DNA, ...

For decades, biologists treated DNA as a static string of letters, a linear code that cells read like text on a page. A new ...

Researchers in Egypt have developed a technique to compress DNA sequences of the kind used in medical research so that they take up a lot less space in a computer database but without loss of ...