Wednesday, November 2, 2011

$1,000 To Harvest One Genome in Two Hours by 2012, Says CEO of Ion Torrent: The first Human Genome Cost About $3 billion to Complete; Now We Can Sequence the Entire Population of Chicago for the Same Price



""The mythical "$1,000 genome" is almost upon us, said Jonathan Rothberg, CEO of sequencing technology company Ion Torrent, at MIT's Emerging Technology conference. If his prediction comes true, it will represent an astonishing triumph in rapid technological development. The rate at which genome sequencing has become more affordable is faster than Moore's law.

"By this time next year sequencing human genomes as fast and cheap as bacterial genome," said Rothberg. (Earlier, he'd commented that his company can now do an entire bacterial genome in about two hours.)

I was in the room on October 19 when he said it, and I would have thought it pure hubris were it not for Rothberg's incredible track record in this area, from founding successful previous-generation sequencing company 454 Life Sciences to recent breakthroughs made with the same technology he proposes will get us to the $1,000 genome.

This technology, called the Personal Genome Machine, is already being used to determine which mutations are present in the genomes of patients' cancers.""

Key to this Breakthrough:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27310/?p1=blogs

2 comments:

bathtub reglazing bronx said...

Its a remarkable achievement by the scientists.This cost saving benefit will enable the scientists to study human genetic mechanism in detail and find answers to many mysteries of human body.

roofing contractors nj said...

Full credit to scientists for this remarkable effort.It shows their struggle for conquering the mysteries of nature hidden in DNA.I guess this sequencing will enable to better understand human nature.

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