Charting a course to hands-on DNA sequencing with the Oxford Nanopore MinION
Like any self-respecting DIYBio enthusiast, I've been flirting with the idea of doing some hands-on sequencing, on and off for the past few years. There were musings about doing some good old fashioned Sanger sequencing (still on the table as a workshop-type thing, in the same spirit that motivates the hand papermaking workshops you sometimes find at industry & technology museums). Then I've been eyeing the somewhat affordable but fairly outdated DNA sequencers that occasionally pop up on eBay. So far, I've always backed off for a number of reasons. Short version: It seemed impractical. They're usually still quite expensive. They're too big for my tiny biolab, so I'd have to find another place to put them. I'd have to learn how to operate them without being able to count on the manufacturer's support. I never investigated this closely, but I'm not sure that manufacturers are particularly keen on providing training to a second-hand buyer of an al...