Ion Torrent: a "robust" technology

Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine (PGM) is one of the most promising and innovative instruments in the field of Next Generation Sequencing. The revolutionary method based on ion release and semiconductor technology make the Ion Torrent machine a member (as we are likely going to use one PGM, we hope the best member) of the non-optical based sequencers group. Little is known about its potential, but despite its young age, Ion Torrent showed its muscles in different efforts such as the sequencing of E. coli O104:H4 genome, responsible of the outbreak of foodborne illness focused in northern Germany in spring 2011.

On October 25th we attended in Verona the "User experience tour" organized by Life Technologies to share the experiences of research groups that are already using the Ion Torrent PGM. More than 40 cities around Europe were connected in video conference with the main event in Berlin opened by the welcome of Jonathan Rothberg, Founder and CEO of Ion Torrent. To the organizers who thanked him for being connected at 6 am from US Rothberg answered "I wake up every day at 5 o'clock to make this technology easier and faster". Three different sessions were organized, ranging from Bacterial Sequencing to Target Resequencing and RNA-Seq techniques. At the end of the day the general impression was that PGM is a quite impressive machine with a promising future potential that also rely on the contribution of the user community. We appreciate this open-source attitude and we hope to be able to contribute as soon as possible!.

P.S. before leaving, the organizers gave us a 316 chip (already used) as a gift. Back to the lab, we thought to create a fancy keychain with it. We tried to make a hole in the chip with a drill but, except for the plastic surface, we couldn't make even a scratch on it! The least we can say is that it's a really "robust" technology!!