SEQUENCING a person鈥檚 genome will soon become cheaper than buying a used car. A company called Complete Genomics based in Mountain View, California, says it will read entire human genomes at $5000 a shot, starting in June this year.
This genome sequencing, which will cost less than one-tenth of what companies charge today, was announced on 5 February at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology meeting on Marco Island, Florida. Its low cost relies on immobilising 鈥渁mplified鈥� DNA fragments on a high-density silicon array, allowing the fragments鈥� sequences to be read efficiently.
The first customers are likely to be researchers and drug firms. But as prices continue to drop across the board, the technology is likely to attract companies keen to sell to members of the public.
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Jorge Conde, president of Knome of Cambridge, Massachusetts, says the cost of a personal genome reading is likely to be higher than the sequencing cost, given the price of expert analysis. 鈥淭he average person cannot speak the language of As, Cs, Gs and Ts,鈥� he notes.
鈥淭he cost of a personal genome is likely to be much higher, given the price of expert analysis鈥�