Decoding the human genome: getting closer to the $1000 milestone
The California-based company Complete Genomics promises to begin decoding complete human genetic sequences in the first half of next year at a price of only $5,000 for all approximately 3 billion pairs of nucleotides of the human genome. This is about 20 times less than the current cost, 50-70 times less than the price offered by companies to end consumers and 100 thousand times less than the price of the first composite genome decoded in 2003.
As he writes The New York Times, Complete Genomics will not sell its services to end customers; it is assumed that it will work with firms that are already "selling genomes" at a price ten times more. It is not yet clear how much the final price will decrease, but it is probably about a multiple drop in the cost of the service.
The leading manufacturer of equipment for decoding genomes, the California company Applied Biosystems, has previously reported that its next-generation devices, ready to enter the market, will be able to decode the genome for about $ 10 thousand. However, this amount includes only reagents and other consumables, and does not include depreciation of equipment and the cost of maintenance personnel.
How Complete Genomics is going to reduce the price even more than twice is not yet clear, but the dynamics of price reductions by leading manufacturers like Applied Biosystems and Illumina allows us to hope that the achievement of the conditional goal of $ 1000 per genome, behind which many experts see the beginning of the era of mass genomics.
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