PacBio Sequencing has been recognized as the gold standard in microbial sequencing due to simultaneously providing long sequence reads (genome contiguity), high consensus accuracy (genome accuracy), minimal sequence bias (genome completeness), and methylation detection (bacterial epigenome). I will highlight new advances and updates on applying PacBio sequencing in microbiology, including multiplexed microbial sequencing on the Sequel System and full-length bacterial RNA sequencing. In the second part of my talk, I will highlight how the generation of high-accuracy single-molecule consensus reads (through a process called circular consensus sequencing (CCS)), a capability unique to PacBio sequencing technology, can be leveraged for high-resolution insights into immune repertoires and other immunology relevant studies. 
 

Learning Objectives: 

1. Understand the differences of high-quality PacBio long-read sequencing to traditional short-read sequencing
2. Get familiar with applications in microbiology for close microbial genomes, full-length transcript sequencing, and direct methylation detection
3. Understand new methods for directly sequencing, at full-length and high accuracy, RNA & DNA from regions relevant in immunology