ONE thousand dollars. That is how much it now costs to sequence the entire human genome 鈥� a precipitous fall from its $3 billion price tag in 2000.
The test won鈥檛 make it cheaper for individuals to assess their risk of disease because California-based manufacturer isn鈥檛 making it available to the public. But researchers are excited.
Many disease-causing mutations have already been identified, but now the harder work begins. Studies with tens of thousands of people are needed to understand conditions such as diabetes, autism and heart disease that are caused by the interplay of many genes. And this needs cheap sequencing, which is finally here.
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鈥淭his was expected but it鈥檚 still great news,鈥� says at Newcastle University, UK, who is part of a project that will sequence the genomes of 100,000 people.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淐heap genomes鈥�