The $1,000 Genome Arrives — For Real, This Time

Today, Illumina, the leading maker of DNA sequencers, announced a milestone in biotechnology: it is introducing a new machine that can sequence the genetic code of a human cell for $1,000.

The machine actually a combination of ten machines working together called the HiSeqX Ten will cost $10 million. Already, three have been bought by Macrogen, The Harvard-MIT Broad Institute in Cambridge, and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia. Illumina forecasts that it will sell five of the systems this year.

Eric Lander, one of the worlds leading geneticists and the director of the Broad, called the machines extremely exciting in Illuminas press release. Over the next few years, we have an opportunity to learn as much about the genetics of human disease as we have learned in the history of medicine, he said.

Its a milestone of huge psychological importance for the scientists who study human genetics and the industry of biotechnology companies creating new diagnostic tests and drugs using the technology. Initially, the number was put out there by researchers as kind of a thought experiment, or a mythic totem. Less than a decade ago, the cost of decoding a human genome was $250,000, but thanks in part to Illumina, the efficiency of the machines has risen at an exponential rate, outpacing the famous Moores Law that describes the improvement of the semiconductor chips used in supercomputers.

But actually hitting the $1,000 mark has proved elusive. Life Technologies, which was trying to give Illumina a run for its money, announced a year ago that it would launch a machine capable of cranking through DNA basepairs at this rate, but the machine still hasnt hit the market. Even if it had, there were reasons not to give it the title. For one thing, it was only counting the costs of the chemicals consumed in sequencing all that DNA, not the machine. (See: Not Quite The $1,000 Genome, But Close Enough)

But Jay Flatley, Illuminas Chief Executive, says that this time the calculations include the cost of the chemicals, of preparing the samples, and amortization for that extremely expensive machine. And in general, producing all that data is a huge step forward for biology. Meanwhile, many of Illuminas potential competitors, including companies like Life and Pacific Biosciences, have been left far behind.

They are brilliant, says Michael Pellini, the Chief Executive of Foundation Medicine, which uses Illuminas machines to analyze the genomes of cancer patients. Well ahead of the field. Nothing today has a dramatic impact on our business, but its good in general for the field. Someone still needs to adapt the technology to the field of oncology in a seamles way. Thats where we come in.

Other companies are racing to use the new technology, too. Earlier this week, Regeneron, a fast-growing biotechnology company, announced that it would be using the technology in research directed at discovering new drugs in collaboration with the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania.

Source: Forbes

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The $1,000 Genome Arrives -- For Real, This Time