Next Generation Sequencing

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) is a high-throughput technology for determining the nucleotide sequence of DNA or RNA molecules. It enables rapid, parallel sequencing of millions to billions of DNA fragments, revolutionizing genomics research, clinical diagnostics, and personalized medicine. NGS platforms, such as Illumina and Oxford Nanopore, generate massive datasets that require bioinformatics tools for analysis.

Also known as: NGS, High-Throughput Sequencing, Massively Parallel Sequencing, Second Generation Sequencing, Deep Sequencing

Why learn Next Generation Sequencing?

Developers should learn NGS when working in bioinformatics, computational biology, or healthcare technology to process and analyze genomic data for applications like variant calling, gene expression profiling, and metagenomics. It's essential for building pipelines in precision medicine, cancer research, and infectious disease surveillance, where handling large-scale sequencing data is critical.

Learning Resources

• docs: Illumina NGS Introduction
• course: Coursera: Genomic Data Science Specialization
• tutorial: NCBI Bookshelf: Next-Generation Sequencing Data Analysis
• video: YouTube: Introduction to NGS
• book: Book: Bioinformatics Data Skills