Drs. Voelkerding and Mao Interviewed by CAP Today

In the February 2009 CAP Today feature story, “Momentum Builds for Latest Sequencing,” William Check talks to Dr. Karl Voelkerding, medical director for advanced technology, and Dr. Rong Mao, co-medical director of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory, about next-generation DNA sequencing. According to Dr. Voelkerding, next-generation sequencing is being applied to basic or translational research; in fact, over 300 articles about next-generation sequencing have already been published. Using the new technology, investigators can perform experiments that were technically impossible in the past.

For example, Dr. Mao is working on a collaborative experiment with Roche 454 and Nimblegen, which highlights data-handling issues, focusing on the human genome that encodes for NF1, the gene involved in neurofibromatosis type 1. Likewise, Dr. Voelkerding is utilizing NGS to analyze genomes of several species of nontuberculous mycobacteria.

• In the past few decades radical change has occurred in laboratory practice, much of it driven by the molecular revolution. An understanding of the working of the genetic code and its constituents has led to cyto­genetics, FISH, nucleic acid amplification, comparative genomic hybridization, microarrays, and DNA sequencing. See more
  
  (CAP Today. “Momentum Builds for Latest Sequencing.” February 2009.)