Transcript Normalisation for Genome Annotation at Wobble Genomics
From September 2 to October 18, 2024, Fabio Zanarello, LongTREC Doctoral Candidate at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), had the opportunity to carry out a research secondment at Wobble Genomics, supervised by Björn Geigle. This secondment offered valuable growth, both in scientific expertise and personal development.
My goal? Assessing whether Wobble Genomics’ LevelUP normalisation technology could improve mRNA annotation in non-model organisms, and learning about the startup environment.
Fabio reflects on his experience:
What I Learned 🎓
I evaluated how normalisation affects transcript detection, working mostly on mouse samples where extensive annotation is publicly available.
Takeaways 🌱
Normalisation increased transcript diversity and the detection of novel transcripts. Standard assessment tools did not always capture these differences, which highlights the need for metrics suited to isoform diversity.
Impact 🌟
Working inside a startup gave me insight into how a company develops and evaluates a technology, alongside the research itself.
Overall, this secondment combined applied method evaluation with experience of an industry environment.
