From the DNA Sequencer to a Sequence Assembly

Modern DNA sequencing instruments produce a variety of raw and processed output formats. Traditional Sanger style sequencing is well represented by the ABI sequencing instruments and so this is where most of the talk with be focused, however new emerging technologies from 454 Life Sciences and Solexa are discussed briefly too. It is not the aim to provide in-depth information on any one specific topic, but rather to present a variety of signal processing mechanisms employed by both sequencing machine manufacturers and downstream processing by researchers alike. This covers progressing from the raw data collected off the sequencing instruments, through tidying up the data and base-calling, to SNP detection methods.