NSG (Next Generation Sequencing) Facility

What is this news?

Union Minister Harsh Vardhan recently inaugurated the Next Generation Sequencing (NSG) facility at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad.

What is use of NSG?

1. The facility includes technology for high genome sequencing and also diagnostic sequencing of clinical samples. 
2. The state of art machine can sequence 18,000 samples in 8 minutes. 
3. The NSG would help prenatal genetic screening and counselling, thereby generating large scale genomic data critical for diagnosis and therapy. 
4. NSG facility would help in finding drugs for rare genetic diseases, which the drug industry does not manufacture due to high costs involved.
5. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies allow unbiased, high-throughput DNA sequencing.

What is significance of NSG technology?

Early and accurate diagnosis with help of NSG has significant potential to decrease infant mortality related to genetic diseases and facilitate parental decision making regarding the transition to palliative care when necessary.

What is genome/DNA sequencing?

Human genome is unique sequence of DNA, 3 billion letters long. It is found in every cell of our body. Genome sequencing tries to know this unique sequence of every human being. It is our biological signature- unique.

Genome sequencing is order of DNA arrangement. Sequencing DNA means determining the order of the four chemical building blocks - called "bases" - that make up the DNA molecule. The sequence tells scientists the kind of genetic information that is carried in a particular DNA segment.

DNA molecule

In the DNA double helix, the four chemical bases always bond with the same partner to form "base pairs." Adenine (A) always pairs with thymine (T); cytosine (C) always pairs with guanine (G). 

This pairing is the basis for the mechanism by which DNA molecules are copied when cells divide, and the pairing also underlies the methods by which most DNA sequencing experiments are done. The human genome contains about 3 billion base pairs that spell out the instructions for making and maintaining a human being.

Genome sequence, a 3 billion letter signature: