PROJECT SUMMARY
Long-read genomic technologies have identified new genomic causes of diseases, such as cancers, infectious
diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, muscular dystrophy, and other conditions, due to its ability to more
accurately identify structural variants and sequence through repetitive regions of the genome compared to short-
read sequencing. This is despite the fact that long-read sequencing technology is fairly new and sparsely used
in the research community. Thus, there is significant opportunity to understand more about the human genome
and health and disease via the widespread adoption of long-read technologies. For greater adoption, the field
will significantly benefit from a workshop that covers the pros and cons of the existing long-read platforms, how
they are currently applied by the scientific community to answer research questions, and includes hands-on
tutorials covering the technical execution of these protocols. Therefore, we propose to host an annual 4-day
workshop on long-read sequencing technologies at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine. We will
leverage our experience from a successful pilot workshop on long-read sequencing in 2018, and we will deliver
two days of lectures from field leaders who are using these technologies to answer key scientific questions and
two days of hands-on technical experimental and computational tutorials focused on data generation and
analysis. We will do this through the following 3 aims: 1) To develop and deliver a 4-day workshop to train young
scientists on long-read genomic technologies that will include hands-on wet bench and bioinformatics tutorials,
and lectures led by technology developers and expert users; 2) To create an environment that will expand the
field of long-read sequencing by fostering idea generation, discussion, and collaboration to yield new discoveries,
better applications, and increase technology development; 3) To promote diversity in culturing talents in long-
read genomic technology development.
Participants will leave this workshop with an in-depth understanding of the benefits and challenges of various
long-read sequencing platforms, when and how best to apply them, and the current state of genomic research
with long-read sequencing technologies. This will, in turn, encourage the appropriate use of long-read
sequencing in genomics project, leading to new discoveries that will help understand and improve human health.