An intensive three-day Nanopore Sequencing for Biosecurity workshop was delivered by the Centre for Crop and Disease Management at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, from 27-29 June.  Three NPBDN members from across Australia were supported to attend the workshop through the National Plant Diagnostic Professional Development Protocols Project, coordinated and delivered by Plant Health Australia (PHA) and funded by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

The workshop aimed to build capacity across the diagnostics network and establish a Nanopore community of practice focusing on biosecurity and eDNA sequencing. It provided hands-on training in Nanopore long-read sequence applications, with an emphasis on amplicon sequencing and native DNA sequencing for genome assembly.

The workshop was tailored to biosecurity applications and included a panel discussion on applying Nanopore sequencing to biosecurity issues. Nanopore sequencing has revolutionised sequencing for biosecurity due to its portability, small footprint, and minimal capital investment. It has important applications in agriculture including pathogen detection in complex samples and crop pathogen and agrochemical resistance detection.