Genome is a snip at $60,000 - being-human - 25 March 2008 - New Scientist
WHEN the cost of sequencing a human genome gets down to the price of a family car, then the era of personalised genomics will truly be upon us. This was the prediction from James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, in an interview with New Scientist (20 October 2007, p 58) last year.
Well, it's getting close. Last week, Applied Biosystems of Foster City, California, announced that it had sequenced the genome of a Nigerian man at a cost of less than $60,000, excluding labour. "We are committed to pushing the limits of this technology," says Shaf Yousaf of Applied Biosystems. "These prices will come down further in the next year or two."
アプライドバイオシステムズは自社で次世代シーケンサを開発しているので、おそらくそれを用いて解析を行った結果だろう。数年後には更なる価格破壊が見込まれると書かれているし、何よりその時期には第三世代のシーケンサが出てきて根本的に前提条件が変わっているはず。テーラーメード医療の時代は近いな。
◆参考記事
・幻影随想: 次世代ゲノムシーケンサの本命は？
・幻影随想: 1時間で1000億塩基解読可能な次世代シーケンサー
