Genetics Shambles 4: The sequence of everything

Over the first four episodes of this series we’ve looked at COVID-19, historic epidemics, human evolution and the human genome and in each episode we’ve invariably talked about ‘sequencing’. Sequencing genomes and DNA of living things. So we thought it time to discuss the very act of sequencing itself. What is it, how do we do it, why do we do it and how can we get better at as technology improves.Robin Ince is joined by three experts in the field. Professor Jay Shendure is a human geneticist at the University of Washington School of Medicine and is one of the world’s pioneers in exome sequencing. Dr Lucy Van Dorp is a Senior Research Fellow at the University College London Genomic Institute working on infectious diseases and ancient DNA. And Professor Mark Blaxter is an evolutionary biologist at the Sanger Institute where he’s the Leader of the Tree of Life Project.To view previous episodes in the Genetics Shambles series head to Cosmicshambles.comFollow us on Twitter @GeneticsUnzip