Will long-read sequencing technologies replace short-read sequencing technologies in the next 10 years ?

The year 1977 is quite remarkable in the history of genomics. It was the first time that the complete genome of an organism (phage φX174) would be sequenced – the advent of the first generation of sequencing technologies. Of the two sequencing methods published that year, Fred Sanger’s ‘chain-termination’ method would become the mainstay of sequencing technology for the next three decades. Because of its better usability compared to the Maxam-Gilbert method, it was widely preferred and became commercialised1 by Applied Biosystems Inc. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of scientists across the world,2 Sanger sequencing eventually produced a reference human genome, courtesy of the US$2.7-billion (United States dollar) Human Genome Project completed in 2003...