The hottest Genomics Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways

How Φ80 Infiltrates Research Labs

Asimov Press • 393 implied HN points • 13 Mar 26

🔬 Science Genomics

Φ80 quietly infects lab E. coli by integrating into bacterial genomes and replicating slowly, so cultures often look healthy while the phage accumulates and can sporadically cause cell lysis.
P1-transduction, a routine method for moving genes, can unintentionally ferry Φ80 between strains because P1 infection triggers Φ80 replication, turning researchers into unwitting dispersers.
Detecting and stopping Φ80 is hard because targeted or short-read sequencing usually misses prophages and researchers have little incentive to screen; adopting long-read whole-genome sequencing and greater awareness would make infections easier to spot and prevent.

A Visual Guide to DNA Sequencing

Asimov Press • 851 implied HN points • 26 Feb 26

🔬 Science Genomics

DNA sequencing has moved from slow, radioactive lab work to fast, automated machines, causing sequencing costs and turnaround times to fall dramatically.
Different technologies make trade-offs: some (like Illumina) give very accurate short reads, others (like PacBio and nanopore) produce long reads useful for repetitive or complex regions, and nanopore adds portability and real-time reading.
These advances have revolutionized biology and medicine by enabling large-scale genome projects, clinical genetic testing, ancient DNA and metagenomics studies, and ongoing efforts to make whole-genome sequencing even cheaper and more widely available.

Going Founder Mode On Cancer

The Century of Biology • 2387 implied HN points • 18 Jan 26

🔬 Science Genomics

A founder‑mode, information‑maximalist approach — exhaustive documentation, frequent advanced diagnostics, and a ladder of personalized treatment options — can enable faster, creative decisions and in this case helped drive the cancer into remission.
Even with money and motivation, practical barriers in hospitals, IRBs, regulators, and the high cost of drug development make access to tissue, cutting‑edge diagnostics, and experimental therapies very hard to obtain and scale.
Emerging platform technologies like single‑cell sequencing, neoantigen vaccines, radioligand therapies, personalized CRISPR and engineered cell therapies make truly individualized cancer care possible, but today they’re expensive and unevenly distributed and will need new regulatory and manufacturing models to become broadly available.

Weekly Dose of Optimism #182

Not Boring by Packy McCormick • 210 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26

🕹 Technology Genomics

Big advances in clean energy are moving from lab to grid. Gigawatt‑hour iron‑air batteries are being deployed for multi‑day storage and startups are pursuing stellarator fusion plants, both pointing to more reliable, decarbonized power and new manufacturing jobs.
Medical research is producing transformative, non‑traditional therapies. Phase‑3 psilocybin trials show strong results for treatment‑resistant depression and other studies suggest benefits for chronic conditions like post‑treatment Lyme, while vitamin B2/B3 genomics identified a simple, life‑saving therapy for NAXD in animal models.
The internet economy is accelerating and reshaping commerce and payments. Fast growth in new businesses, app activity, and stablecoin payment volume, plus concepts like agentic commerce, suggest rising momentum — but widespread progress will depend on regulatory and permissioning systems.

Countable Labs

ASeq Newsletter • 14 implied HN points • 19 Mar 26

🔬 Science Genomics

Countable Labs is building a novel PCR instrument that acts like digital PCR but runs inside a single tube.
Their method seems to isolate individual molecules in a gel, amplify them, and image the fluorescence directly in the tube to enable multiplexed detection.
Public details are limited, so people are looking through patents to understand the technical specifics.

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🚀 FP! Week In Review, Briefly #19

Faster, Please! • 1005 implied HN points • 31 Jan 26

🕹 Technology Genomics

AI is starting to improve the systems that build AI, creating a possible self-reinforcing “boom loop” that could speed up discovery and long-run economic growth beyond past trends.
This week brought lots of pro-innovation signs—faster chips and chip competition, AI applied to genomics and retail, progress on self-driving and renewables—showing broad technological momentum across sectors.
At the same time, social and political risks are rising, from AI-related mental-health concerns and anti-AI political strategies to financial and regulatory worries, so the gains come with important trade-offs.

Signal Biosciences

ASeq Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 17 Mar 26

🔬 Science Genomics

They’re building a high-plex PCR approach that runs on standard qPCR and dPCR machines, already showing up to 15 targets in dPCR and a 7‑target qPCR prototype, with aims of roughly 50 and 40 targets respectively.
The key idea is to move fluorescent signal generation out of the genomic amplification and into a parallel isothermal secondary reaction; probe cleavage during PCR produces a cleaved tail that triggers separate signal‑generating chemistries, effectively acting like a barcode.
By decoupling signal chemistry from amplification and pooling fluorophores separately, the method could let developers multiplex many targets in a single reaction without needing specialized instrumentation.

Sarmal - FLASH Sequencing!

ASeq Newsletter • 14 implied HN points • 18 Mar 26

🔬 Science Genomics

Sarmal is a new company working on DNA sequencing and is pitching a technology called FLASH.
FLASH stands for Fluorescence Activation by Serial Hybridization and is described as involving a polymerase, but the explanation and figure are unclear.
There is a patent for the technology, and deeper details are gated behind a paid subscription paywall.

Future Of Protein Sequencing

ASeq Newsletter • 29 implied HN points • 11 Mar 26

🔬 Science Genomics

Protein sequencing is much harder than DNA sequencing and has fewer broad, foundational applications, making commercial success expensive and difficult.
Without big academic champions and large research projects to drive adoption, companies are forced into niche revenue paths that pull development away from a general-purpose sequencing platform.
There are realistic niche opportunities like biopharma QA/QC and sensitive biomarker detection, but turning protein sequencing into a widely used tool will require sustained funding, risk tolerance, and strong research adopters.

Roche Axelios - My Current Understanding

ASeq Newsletter • 36 implied HN points • 07 Mar 26

🔬 Science Genomics

Roche’s Axelios can deliver genomes far cheaper than competitors — the headline is $150/genome, but a near‑Illumina quality simplex 30x genome may be around $30, with duplex offered for higher accuracy.
Initial 19‑hour prep times looked concerning, but an SBX‑Fast workflow suggests similar throughput with about a 3.5‑hour prep; final workflows (especially for simplex) aren’t public and prep time could still affect margins.
The system uses small disposable sensor chips that Roche claims can be reused (~20×), so chip cost likely only adds a modest amount (probably under ~$100) to each run rather than being a major cost driver.

Roche Axelios Pricing

ASeq Newsletter • 72 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26

🕹 Technology Genomics

Roche’s Axelios is priced competitively with Illumina — offering $150 per duplex genome and very low simplex read costs — but not so cheap that it will immediately displace Illumina, so adoption will be gradual.
Roche has clear advantages over newer rivals: it’s lower risk, more technically interesting, and cheaper for many counting/simplex applications, so it’s likely to outcompete companies like Ultima and Element.
Reusable chips and low per-run chip costs give Roche room to cut prices or offer big customer discounts later, but high switching costs and Illumina’s entrenched position mean market changes will be slow and uneven.

BGI Nanopore Peptide Profiling

ASeq Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 10 Mar 26

🔬 Science Genomics

BGI demonstrated a scaled-up method for classifying peptides with nanopores, showing the approach works beyond small proofs of concept.
They attach DNA handles to peptide ends so peptides can be threaded and paced through a nanopore using existing DNA sequencing control.
The study revealed more technical detail about BGI’s nanopore platform, indicating it could be adapted for larger-scale protein or peptide analysis.

Weekly Dose of Optimism #178

Not Boring by Packy McCormick • 188 implied HN points • 30 Jan 26

🕹 Technology Genomics

Brain-computer interfaces have moved from lab demos to real-world use, with implanted devices letting people with paralysis control computers and achieve information transfer rates rivaling a mouse.
Biotech is making bold strides: a three-drug combo eliminated pancreatic tumors in mice, and the first human trial of partial cellular reprogramming to reverse age-related damage has begun in the eye.
AI is unlocking new scientific and creative frontiers—models like AlphaGenome can read regulatory DNA to predict variant effects, while Project Genie can generate playable virtual worlds from simple prompts.

Illumina Q50, Q70 Reads

ASeq Newsletter • 36 implied HN points • 04 Mar 26

🔬 Science Genomics

Illumina has renamed the Constellation product to TruPath.
Illumina unveiled a new 35B flowcell for the NovaSeq X.
They announced Q70 Duplex reads but didn’t share details, and also highlighted progress in spatial genomics, single‑cell, and proteomics.

Solving the Electroporation Bottleneck

Asimov Press • 335 implied HN points • 15 Jan 26

🔬 Science Genomics

Electroporation has a huge space of possible settings, so getting DNA into non-model microbes is often slow, hit-or-miss, and leaves researchers unsure why experiments fail.
A robotic electroporator that tests many buffers, voltages, waveforms, and plasmid origins—and uses a Bayesian optimizer to choose conditions—can rapidly find working protocols and massively improve transformation efficiency.
Scaling cultivation and transformation for diverse microbes will open up study and engineering of vast, untapped biological diversity, leading to new enzymes, tools, and biotech applications beyond standard lab organisms.

Three interesting studies of genetic variation

De Novo • 99 implied HN points • 04 Feb 26

🔬 Science Genomics

Common genetic variants in meiosis genes change how many crossovers happen, and fewer crossovers raise the risk of embryo aneuploidy; those genetic risks are also tied to a shorter reproductive lifespan (later menarche and earlier menopause).
A measurable fraction of people carry high Epstein–Barr virus DNA in blood, and host immune genetics — especially HLA — largely determine who can’t control persistent EBV, while viral sequence differences had little impact on disease in this large cohort.
When you exclude extrinsic causes of death, intrinsic human lifespan is about 50–55% heritable, meaning genetics explain roughly half the variation in lifespan today, and older lower estimates were driven by higher environmental mortality in past cohorts.

Illumina Deliver Q70. Complete Genomics Sold.

ASeq Newsletter • 51 implied HN points • 24 Feb 26

🕹 Technology Genomics

Illumina is targeting Q50 overall read quality by the end of 2027, and some kits will achieve Q70.
They’re releasing much higher-throughput options, including a 5 billion-read flow cell, a 1.5 billion-read 600-cycle kit, and upgrades pushing 10 billion reads to 14 billion (20-hour runs) and 25 billion to 35 billion reads.
Per-run prices will go up while cost per base goes down, and Complete Genomics has been sold.

More Roche SBX Workflow Thoughts

ASeq Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 05 Mar 26

🔬 Science Genomics

There are two Axelios workflows being compared: SBX-D is a duplex, multi-day protocol around 19 hours, while SBX-Fast completes in roughly 3.5 hours.
Collected run data were used to directly compare SBX-D and SBX-Fast to show their relative throughput and performance differences.
The comparison highlights trade-offs between speed and duplex capability, so choosing a workflow depends on whether higher throughput or shorter turnaround time is more important.

Cancer Science in On a Tear

Ground Truths • 7436 implied HN points • 10 Nov 24

🏥 Health & Wellness Genomics

Recent research has made great progress in understanding cancer, revealing that many cancer cells may come from multiple clones. This helps explain how cancer develops and spreads.
Studies are showing how powerful visual mapping of tumors can be, especially for identifying how different immune responses affect the growth of cancers like breast and ovarian cancer.
New insights into circular DNA in cancer cells are revealing its role in tumor growth and resistance to treatments. There is even potential for new therapies targeting this DNA to combat cancer.

The Waiting Game: Past, Present and Future of Indian Genomics

Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning • 343 implied HN points • 11 Dec 25

🔬 Science Genomics

India has a rich and diverse history, being central to many cultural developments, including the spread of Buddhism and the evolution of various languages and religions. This diversity is reflected in its population, languages, and traditions.
Genomic studies reveal that the people of India have complex genetic backgrounds, including influences from ancient populations and migrations over thousands of years, showcasing both indigenous roots and connections to other global regions.
Despite advancements in genomics in other parts of the world, India has seen limited progress in retrieving ancient DNA, which hinders deeper understanding of its historical populations and transformations.

The Pet Theory Economy

Nepetalactone Newsletter • 1965 implied HN points • 28 Jan 24

🔬 Science Genomics

In the Pet Theory Economy, people defend and promote their theories as if their livelihoods depend on it, driven by the need for traffic and novelty.
Challenging someone's theory is seen as interference with their ability to make a living, leading to a circular logic where blame is shifted.
Focusing on various aspects of issues is valid; one should not be limited to a single perspective or group and should question narratives that feed into a narrow Pet Theory economy.

A Few More Roche SBX Chip Notes

ASeq Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26

🔬 Science Genomics

More technical details and small updates about the Roche SBX chip are still being discussed.
TruPath is noted as interesting but not very exciting here, partly because it’s already been covered elsewhere.
The write-up is behind a paywall and requires a paid subscription or sign-in to access.

Roche SBX Interest High, Workflow Questions

ASeq Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26

🕹 Technology Genomics

Interest in Roche’s Axelios sequencer is high and early reactions to AGBT pricing look positive.
If those early responses hold, about 58% of NovaSeq X sales could shift to Axelios, roughly 150 units based on 2025 Illumina numbers.
That level of market shift is probably unrealistic, so real-world impact is uncertain and likely smaller.

Solid State Nanopores - Cambridge Nucleomics!

ASeq Newsletter • 7 implied HN points • 12 Mar 26

🔬 Science Genomics

A Cambridge-based solid-state nanopore company founded around 2021 recently closed a $736K seed round.
Their method hybridizes barcodes with bulky loops to RNA or DNA and threads them through a solid-state nanopore. Varying the loop patterns or spacing creates distinct labels that can be counted.
They’re targeting clinical counting applications such as point-of-care sepsis tests, early cancer detection, and minimal residual disease monitoring.

Land acknowledgement, Greenland edition

Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning • 406 implied HN points • 20 Nov 25

🎭️ Culture Genomics

Greenland has a long history of human habitation, starting with the Paleo-Eskimos over 5,000 years ago, showing that there were different groups living there long before the Norse arrived.
Genomic studies reveal that many modern populations replace earlier inhabitants, suggesting that what we consider 'native' can change over time based on migration and adaptation.
The idea of who is indigenous or native can be complicated, as both the Norse and the Thule culture that followed them were newcomers who replaced previous populations in Greenland.

Element High-throughput: Vitari

ASeq Newsletter • 29 implied HN points • 20 Feb 26

🔬 Science Genomics

A new high-throughput sequencer delivers up to 5 billion reads per flowcell, running 2x150bp in about 36 hours with a planned upgrade to 2x300bp in the future.
It targets a $100 per-genome consumable cost while the instrument is priced at $689,000, putting it cheaper per genome than some competitors but more expensive than others.
The system is compact (mini-fridge size) and uses two flowcells with six lanes each, positioning it as a solid alternative to existing high-throughput platforms.

The MedGen qPCR kit Update

Nepetalactone Newsletter • 1100 implied HN points • 07 Feb 24

🔬 Science Genomics

qPCR primer sets are available for testing Pfizer, Moderna, and Janssen vaccines
Medicinal Genomics offers commercially available qPCR, RT-qPCR, and DNA/RNA extraction kits
The RT-qPCR assay has been improved to use a Lyophilized RT-qPCR enzyme mix for easier shipping and storage

Indo-European Linguistics with Lin-Manuel Rwanda

Grey Goose Chronicles • 1100 implied HN points • 05 Feb 24

🚌 Education Genomics

Linguistics helps understand prehistory by offering a unique set of evidence.
Indo-European migration occurred in stages by closely related cultures.
Studying Proto-Indo-European provides insights while challenges persist in understanding other language families like Bantu and Afro-Asiatic.

Syndex Bio/Ultima

ASeq Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 24 Feb 26

🔬 Science Genomics

Syndex Bio’s mcPCR can copy both DNA sequence and methylation marks during amplification, effectively enabling ‘PCR for methylation’. This should improve testing of small or non‑invasive oncology samples for earlier detection and recurrence monitoring.
Ultima Genomics launched a cheaper (~$850K) second instrument (ug200) that removes a separate ePCR step and doubles output per wafer, boosting throughput and lowering cost. It still appears bead‑based on unpatterned wafers, which suggests there’s further density headroom if they optimize wafer/flowcell design.
The bigger risk for Ultima is commercial: they need to find enough customers to absorb the massive throughput and drive the hyper‑elastic growth required for the business to survive. Capacity and performance may be strong, but market adoption is the key bottleneck.

DNA And Protein Sequencing Companies

ASeq Newsletter • 58 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26

🔬 Science Genomics

Protein sequencing is becoming a growing startup space, with many companies now working to make protein readouts practical.
Two main technical routes dominate—optical methods and nanopore-based sequencing—while a smaller set of firms pursue other novel approaches, and multiple companies are active in each category.
An updated directory of DNA sequencing companies is maintained, and contributors are invited to share additional firms to keep the list current.

Why Are We So Excited About Roche?

ASeq Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 23 Feb 26

🔬 Science Genomics

Roche’s new Axelios single-molecule sequencer appears to be a real engineering breakthrough that can match or beat Illumina on key metrics like read length, speed, throughput, and accuracy.
Because Roche is large, well-funded, and running global pilots, it can aggressively compete on price and scale, potentially grabbing significant market share if reuse and pricing work out.
Significant uncertainty remains due to Roche’s mixed history, pricing and purchasing-cycle risks, and execution challenges, so excellent technology doesn’t guarantee immediate market disruption.

The Genetic Time Machine: Neanderthals, genomics and hybridization priors

ideassleepfuriously • 982 implied HN points • 16 Jan 24

🔬 Science Genomics

200 thousand years of isolation may not be enough for genetic incompatibilities to develop
Genomics has revolutionized evolutionary biology by providing precise insights with massive amounts of data
The mixing of Neanderthal and modern human lineages led to genetic incompatibilities and selection against Neanderthal-origin DNA in modern humans

No Evidence RSV Had a Research Laboratory Origin, Multi-Layer Analysis Concludes

Who is Robert Malone • 8 implied HN points • 04 Mar 26

🔬 Science Genomics

A six-layer, AI-enhanced analysis found no credible genomic, epidemiological, or behavioral evidence that RSV was engineered or escaped from a lab, and the data point to a natural, zoonotic origin long before the 1950s.
RSV was likely circulating in humans for decades and was only detected in the 1950s because of advances in tissue culture and expanded respiratory surveillance, including military-funded detection programs, not because the virus newly emerged from labs.
The AI-Enhanced verification framework produced consistent negative findings for RSV, showing multi-layer analytical tools can help distinguish natural emergence from laboratory involvement, though they cannot replace political agreements or formal inspection regimes.

Nvidia Illumina Acquisition? The AI Foundry for Healthcare – The Hardware of Life

SemiAnalysis • 7576 implied HN points • 27 Sep 23

🕹 Technology Genomics

Eroom's Law and Moore's Law are critical in Semiconductors and Drug Research, analyzing time, money, and output.
Healthcare, a $4 trillion industry, lags behind in technological progress driven by Moore's Law.
Illumina acquisition by Nvidia could bridge the gap in genomics, addressing bottlenecks and enabling full-stack healthcare solutions.

My review of THE COMING WAVE

Ground Truths • 7567 implied HN points • 09 Sep 23

🕹 Technology Genomics

AI is on the brink of transforming our lives with the majority of interactions being with AIs, not people.
The book 'THE COMING WAVE' by Mustafa Suleyman discusses the future of AI integrating life science and digital applications.
The book offers a balanced perspective on AI's potential, historical context, and the challenges and opportunities it presents.

Why No Japanese Sequencing Companies?

ASeq Newsletter • 36 implied HN points • 03 Feb 26

🕹 Technology Genomics

Japan has deep expertise and built many key components for sequencing — from contributions to the Human Genome Project to ISFET sensing and imaging sensors — yet it has produced almost no homegrown DNA or protein sequencing companies.
Possible reasons include a lack of strong domestic genome centers and expert customers, structural problems with the startup ecosystem, and past institutional missteps that discouraged local product development.
The shift toward clinical, sample-to-answer sequencing and the still-open field of protein sequencing are clear opportunities Japan could exploit with its research and manufacturing strengths, and funding startups would build domestic talent and capability even if many ventures fail.

scBench: Can AI Agents Analyze Real-World Single-Cell Data?

LatchBio • 33 implied HN points • 06 Feb 26

🔬 Science Genomics

scBench is a realistic benchmark of 394 verifiable single-cell RNA‑seq problems spanning six sequencing platforms and seven task types, using real data snapshots and deterministic graders to mimic the decisions bioinformaticians make.
Frontier models do better on scRNA‑seq than on spatial data but are still unreliable overall: the best model scores about 52.8% and tasks requiring scientific judgment (cell typing, clustering, differential expression) are the hardest while procedural steps (normalization, QC) are easiest.
Which sequencing platform the data come from matters as much or more than model choice—platforms drive large accuracy swings—so trustworthy automation will require platform‑aware tooling, better harness design, and more representative training data.

Acorn Genetics - Working Solid State Nanopores "Right Now"?

ASeq Newsletter • 29 implied HN points • 04 Feb 26

🕹 Technology Genomics

Acorn Genetics says it is building solid-state nanopore DNA sequencing technology.
Solid-state nanopore sequencing has been extremely hard historically, with no clear proof-of-concept despite decades of work and hundreds of millions spent.
The company raised about $2M to build an alpha and has roadmap timing for a beta around now, but the small funding and the field’s challenges make the timeline and prospects uncertain.

Hiding in plain sight: uniting Denisovans’ famous DNA with a set of mysterious physical remains

Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning • 543 implied HN points • 28 Jun 25

🔬 Science Genomics

Denisovans were a group of ancient humans identified through DNA, and they share a common ancestry with Neanderthals. Even though we didn't know much about their physical remains until recently, DNA findings showed they contributed to the ancestry of many people today.
New discoveries have linked Denisovans to specific fossils, indicating that ancient human bones found in China belonged to them. This connection helps us learn more about where Denisovans lived and how they fit into human history.
Denisovan genes are found in modern populations across Asia and Oceania, suggesting they lived in many regions. This means that their impact on human ancestry is broader than previously understood, making their story a key part of our evolutionary history.

The golden age of vaccine development

The Works in Progress Newsletter • 45 implied HN points • 08 Jan 26

🔬 Science Genomics

Vaccines used to be lucky accidents but are now deliberately designed using detailed knowledge of microbes, cells, and the immune system.
New tools let us build precise vaccines from specific proteins or mRNA, making them safer, easier to optimize, and avoid using whole pathogens.
Faster sequencing, better delivery systems, and improved manufacturing let vaccines be developed and updated in weeks, and continued investment will unlock even more progress.