Episode 52: From Signals to Sequences

Featuring Dr. Ryan Wick

Show Notes:

In this episode, Dr. Ryan Wick to explore the tools and ideas that have shaped modern bacterial genome assembly. Dr. Wick explains how his bioinformatics tools used for bacterial genome assembly help scientists turn sequencing reads into complete, usable genomes. He breaks down the unique challenges of genome assembly and why bacterial isolates are especially well suited to hybrid approaches that combine short- and long-read data. Throughout the conversation, Dr. Wick emphasizes the importance of choosing the right tool for the right scientific question, noting that every assembly method has strengths, limitations, and intended use cases.

Guest:

Head-and-shoulders portrait of a person with a shaved head wearing a light gray sweater, standing outdoors with a softly blurred urban background.

Ryan Wick, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher, Center for Pathogen Genomics, University of Melbourne

Ryan Wick is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Melbourne's Center for Pathogen Genomics where he works on assembly algorithms for bacterial genomes. He has a particular interest in long-read assembly and hybrid assembly which combines both short and long reads. Additionally, Dr Wick is the developer of digital bioinformatic tools such as Bandage, Unicycler, Porechop, Filtlong, Badread, Trycycler, Polypolish and Autocycler. Dr. Wick earned a Bachelors from the University of Wisconsin, a Master of Science at the University of Melbourne, and Doctor of Philosophy under Dr. Kathryn Holt at the University of Monash.

Host:

David Yarmosh, MS

Lead Bioinformatician, ATCC

David Yarmosh is a lead bioinformatician in ATCC’s Sequencing and Bioinformatics Center. He’s a graduate of New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering. He has been working in large data aggregation and analysis since 2013 and microbial genomics with a focus on biosurveillance R&D efforts since 2016. David has led international training exercises in Peru and Senegal, sharing metagenomic analytical capabilities. His interests include genomics database construction, metadata collection, drug resistance mechanisms, bioinformatics standards, and machine learning. Since joining ATCC in 2020, David has worked extensively in SARS-CoV-2 classification, epidemiology, and genomics evaluation, including enhanced and uniform variant reporting. He has contributed more broadly to genomics reporting and analytical standardization and he has helped develop the podcast Behind the Biology, which he now hosts.

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