The Benefit of Long-Read Sequencing in Gene Therapies

At the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) conference in Baltimore, Md. in May 2024, Pharmaceutical Technology® sat down with Nadia Sellami, PhD, global segment lead for gene and cell therapy at PacBio, about the benefits of long-read sequencing in cell and gene editing.

According to Sellami, long-read sequencing detects information that short-read sequencing cannot capture. “And in contrast to other long-read sequencing methods, it has higher accuracy while maintaining the same read length,” she says in this video interview. “So, for example, you can see long indels that you might get from gene editing. You can sequence the entire AAV [adeno-associated virus] molecule, ITR [inverted terminal repeat sequence] to ITR. You can sequence plasmids. You can sequence full length mRNA [messenger RNA] and so many more sequencing applications.”

DNA sequencing is important for the design, production, and quality of gene therapies, says Sellami. Click the video box above to view the full interview.

For more coverage from the 2024 ASGCT conference, visit PharmTech.com’s conference page to view the following:

• Highlighting Personalized mRNA-Based Vaccines for Pancreatic Cancer
• Research Shows that HIC Can Effectively Separate Deaminated Capsids from Non-Deaminated Capsids
• Using Receptor Architecture to Improve CAR-T Cell Sensitivity in Oncology
• The Role of Bispecific Antibodies in Redirecting AAV Vectors