New technologies for DNA analysis – a review of the READNA Project

•Discovery of ‘TUF’ DNA – unusually difficult to denature stretches of genomic DNA sequence.•Enrichment methods – new methods, benchmarking and descriptors of enrichment technologies.•Manipulating, visualizing and interrogating individual DNA molecules in nanosystems.•Nanopore Sequencing – first commercial nanopore sequencer from Oxford Nanopore Technologies.

The REvolutionary Approaches and Devices for Nucleic Acid analysis (READNA) project received funding from the European Commission for 4 1/2 years. The objectives of the project revolved around technological developments in nucleic acid analysis. The project partners have discovered, created and developed a huge body of insights into nucleic acid analysis, ranging from improvements and implementation of current technologies to the most promising sequencing technologies that constitute a 3rd and 4th generation of sequencing methods with nanopores and in situ sequencing, respectively.