Text | Xu Rui A 17-year-old high school student in the United States has genome sequenced freshwater angel fish for the first time. Image source: Indeever Madireddy A 17-year-old high school student in the United States has genome sequenced freshwater angel fish for the first tim

Category：science

2025-06-15

text | Xu Rui

A 17-year-old high school student in the United States performed genome sequencing of freshwater angel fish for the first time. Image source: Indeever Madireddy

A 17-year-old high school student in the United States has performed genome sequencing of freshwater angel fish for the first time, and the sequence data has been uploaded to the public database. Related research was published in microPublication Biology on October 18.

Indever Madiredy genome sequencing of pet angel fish Calvin in March this year. Although he is a high school student, he is also an enthusiastic fish farmer and biology enthusiast. He has previously used CRISPR gene editing technology for research. Calvin was raised by him from fish eggs.

"Although my angel fish is dead, I want it to 'perpetuate', so I decided to sequence its genome and contribute relevant data to the scientific community, which is also a tribute to my pet," Madiredy said.

Madiredy carried out sequencing work in the bio-maker space "Bio Fun" (a community lab) located in , , California. The laboratory equipment here is open to anyone and can be used with a small membership fee. He stored the fish in a lab at -80°C to preserve its DNA. He spent about a month studying and preparing for sequencing.

Madiredy used a small sequencer manufactured by Oxford Nanopore Technology Co., Ltd., a British DNA sequencing company, and took two weekends to complete the sequencing work. This small sequencer can read sequence information as DNA molecules pass through micropores. Compared with other sequencing techniques, the nanopore sequencing technique has slightly less accuracy, but the single DNA fragments measured are longer, which makes it easier for the sequencing software to regroup these fragments together to obtain a complete genome. It's like playing a puzzle game. The larger the pieces, the less you need to compete, and the easier it is to compete.

After sequencing, Madiredy spent two months analyzing the data and learning more related knowledge. He then uploads the sequence data to the public database.

angel fish is native to the Amazon basin and is now very popular all over the world as an aquatic fish. The sequencing results show that the genome of the angel fish is similar to that of the related fish and does not bring any special "surprise".

Madiredy said sequencing costs about $2,000, of which nearly $1,000 were obtained through crowdfunding.

"The most important thing is the people I met in this community lab, especially Johan Sosa and Kurt Chang, who gave me great support," Madiredy said.

, CEO of Oxford Nanopore Technology Co., Ltd., said: "This is an excellent example of the scientific spirit that curiosity carries and what young scientists can do after eliminating obstacles such as cost and complexity technology."