Commun Biol: New results! Scientists have developed an app called Genopo that can be used to fully analyze the genomic properties of coronavirus.

12, 2020 // -- In a recent study published in the international journal Communications Biology, scientists from the Gavin Institute of Medicine in Sydney and others developed a new smartphone app that analyzes the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in less than half an hour.
advanced nano-hole devices can help scientists read or sequence genetic material from biological samples outside the lab, but so far researchers have needed devices with high-end computing power to analyze the original data.
Photo Source: In the Dr Ira Deveson study, researchers developed an app called Genopo that enables access to genomic information in remote or under-resourced areas and at hospital bedsides, dr. Ira Deveson says not everyone has access to analytical DNA and RNA. With the high-performance computing resources needed, but most people have smartphones as a central way to track the spread of coronaviruses, fast, real-time genomic analysis is more important than ever, and the new app can help researchers make genome analysis easier, putting the technology really in the pockets of scientists around the world.
In the future, genomics analysis may no longer require complex laboratory equipment, and portable devices the size of u disks, such as the MinlON sequencer of Oxford nano-hole technology, are capable of rapidly producing and analyzing the genome sequences of samples at the sampling site or in clinical areas, a technique that has now been used for Ebola outbreak surveillance in West Africa, analysis of microbial community in the Arctic, and identification of the evolution of coronavirus during the current coronal outbreak.
, however, analyzing genomic sequence data often requires powerful computing power, and scientists need to extract large numbers of gene sequences from the original data and determine gene variation and determine the evolutionary mechanisms of viruses.
In addition, so far, genomic analysis has required processing power from high-end server computers or cloud services, and researchers are working to change that, and in order to achieve real-time genome sequencing and analysis in place, without large laboratory equipment, researchers have developed a new app that can perform bio-information workflows on smartphones that download nano-hole sequencing databases.
Because of the resource constraints in smartphones, the process still needs to overcome numerous technical challenges, and the Genopo app will consolidate many of the biometric tools available into a single Android application, which will then allow a lot of processing on Android devices.
Then, using the Genopo app, researchers tested raw sequencing data from virus samples taken from the bodies of nine sydney SARS-CoV-2 infected patients, including RNA from pharynx swab samples, using MinlON devices to sequence amplified DNA and analyze it on smartphones, and tested the effectiveness of the app on different Android devices, including Nokia, Huawei, LG and Sony.
Genopo app takes about 27 minutes to determine the complete SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence from raw data, which may open up the possibility of fixed-point real-time analysis of the genome, and the researchers note that the Genopo app can also be used to describe methylation of DNA, a genomic modification that alters the genetic activity of human genome samples. Deveson, the
researcher, said the study provides a flexible and efficient architecture for running a variety of popular bio-informational tools and adapting to small or large genomes, and we hope the new app will help researchers more easily obtain genomics information and uncover mysteries about DNA or RNA.
The Genopo app is currently an open, free app available through the Google Play Store.
() Original source: Samarakoon, H., Punchihewa, S., Senanayake, A. et al. Genopo: a nanopore sequencing analysis toolkit for portable Android devices. Commun Biol 3, 538 (2020).doi:10.1038/s42003-020-01270-z.