Singapore scientists launch SG-NEx, a landmark resource to advance precision medicine through long-read RNA sequencing

In a major milestone for biomedical science, researchers led by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s Genome Institute of Singapore (A*STAR GIS) have unveiled one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive long-read RNA sequencing datasets. Known as SG-NEx (Singapore Nanopore Expression), this open-access resource features more than 750 million long RNA reads across 14 human cell lines, marking a transformative step forward in biomarker discovery and precision medicine. Published in Nature Methods in March 2025, the SG-NEx dataset addresses long-standing limitations in RNA research by enabling scientists to map full-length RNA molecules and uncover complex transcriptomic features often missed by conventional short-read sequencing. Unlocking the full picture of RNA While traditional short-read RNA sequencing has powered transcriptomics for years, it struggles to capture the full structure of RNA molecules. As a result, critical features such as alternative splicing, gene isoforms, and fusion transcripts, especially those linked to diseases like cancer, can...