Genomics Education Partnership

Sponsored by the University of Alabama, Washington University in St. Louis, NSF, and NIH

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Next Generation Sequencing Video Tour

About the Video Tour

This video is aimed at informing biology students of new advances in genome sequencing technologies and applications. Students may understand this video better after they have watched the previous video (Sequencing a Genome: Inside the Washington University Genome Center). This video can be used with advanced high school students or at the undergraduate or beginning graduate levels.

The video was produced by a partnership between Washington University Genome Center and Washington University Department of Biology.

Next Generation Sequencing Video Tour

A Tour of Next Generation Sequencing: Inside the Washington University Genome Center is a set of interviews with three Directors from the Genome Center. The interviews are interspersed with video shots and still images of the machines in action and animations to explain the chemistry of next generation sequencing. The video is broken up into four parts:


  • Introduction with Elaine Mardis, Co-Director of the Genome Center: progress, an overview, production statistics, and uses of new sequencing technologies.

  • Illumina with Cherilynn Shadding, Outreach Director of the Genome Center: Illumina sequencing technology (including bridge amplification, reversible terminator synthesis, paired end reads, problems) and Illumina production statistics.

  • 454 with Cherilynn Shadding, Outreach Director of the Genome Center: 454 sequencing technology (including emulsion PCR, pyrosequencing, paired end reads, problems), 454 production statistics, and comparisons of 454 and Illumina technologies.

  • Applications with Dr. Rick Wilson, Director of the Genome Center: current projects (including new genomes, microbial genomes, the 1000 Genome Project, cancer genome sequencing) and implications of genome sequencing/GINA (the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act).

Additional Materials

The video clips and supplemental materials are available for download on the Tour Materials page. Additional supplemental materials include the full script, tables with machine comparisons, a glossary, Powerpoint presentations of animations shown in the videos, and a complete list of image sources.

Funding and Support

This project was funded by a Professorship Award for Dr. Sarah C.R. Elgin from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to Washington University. Additional support was provided by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) through its funding of the Washington University Genome Center Outreach Program.

The tour videos and associated materials are copyright © 2010, Washington University in St. Louis. Teachers may copy materials as needed for classroom use.