2011 ICBE: Stephen Turner on SMRT Technology



This post was written on location by Oregon State University Student and SBE Member, Madeline Midgett.


Stephen Turner, Founder and CTO of Pacific Biosciences

Stephen Turner from Pacific Biosciences spoke as an invited speaker in the Biomolecular Probes as Diagnostic and Therapeutic Reagents Session. His company has developed single-molecule, real-time (SMRT) technology to watch DNA polymerase enzyme activity during replication.

Turner pointed out that the popular, fancy computer-made movies of DNA replication shown in biology courses are inaccurate. While the movies give students an idea of the shape and sequence of the enzyme activity, their new SMRT technology shows the tempo and rhythm of the process with a burst of fluorescent light every time a base binds.

SMRT uses zero-mode waveguides to see the single DNA polymerase 1000 times better, and phospholinked nucleotides to avoid high

background levels. The PacBio RS machine simultaneously monitors hundreds of waveguides to analyze the kinetic interactions. The assay has the advantage of a very long relength to increase accuracy, and much faster time to result. Not only does this technology help us visualize the DNA replication process, but it rapidly identifies pathogens from a sample sequence and can be very useful in disease weathermapping of an outbreak.