A thirty-dollar genome?
Genome washcloth will reduce the price of sequencing to $30Alla Solodova, Infox.ru
Scientists from Harvard University promise to reduce the cost of sequencing the human genome to $30.
The reason for the cheapness is the technology that reduces the cost of reagents and allows you to analyze the DNA sequence in a matter of minutes.
The cost of the sequenced genome has decreased to several thousand dollars (although for consumers such a service still costs tens of thousands). And although thousands are not millions, scientists continue to puzzle over how to make the procedure even cheaper and more accessible.
Innovative "washcloth"
One of the recent inventions may well solve the problem. In January 2010, it became known about a new device that is capable of manipulating liquid (Technology Review, Shoveling Water). However, the microfluidic chip released by Fluidigm looks like a washcloth, and not the result of decades of innovation. The "insides" of the invention (a gray square in the center of a transparent frame) they consist of a complex system of microscopic polymer channels, pumps and dampers.
In one minute, liquid (for example, blood) flows through a high-tech "washcloth" through a system of micro-pumps and micro-pumps, which divide it into 10,000 servings of one nanoliter. Each analytical portion falls into an isolated "test tube" — a polymer chamber in which further analysis can be carried out.
Harvard specialists worked on the technologies of "tiny droplets" in the laboratory of Professor David Weitz. Scientists have demonstrated how tiny droplets can move through a system of polymer microchannels. Drops, like bottles on a factory conveyor, move through a maze. At this time, the necessary reagent can be added to the analyzed nanocapelle. Depending on how the color of the analyzed liquid changes, the droplet will fall into one or another chamber.
David Weitz patented the described approach and created the company RainDance Technologies, which specializes in optimizing research methods.
A million drops per second
At the Consumer Genetics Conference, which took place in Boston last week, Dr. Weitz proposed commercializing an existing technology. Scientists have not sequenced DNA yet, but they have shown the ability to do it cheaply and quickly.
The inventors propose to place a studied section of DNA with an optical "barcode" attached in a microchamber. An unknown part of DNA can be injected into the same chamber. If the sequences turn out to be complementary, then the "pieces" of DNA will bind and change the color of the optical label. A microscope with an automated video camera will monitor the color change.
"Repeating such a procedure, for example, a thousand times with a thousand known sequences, you can read 1000 "letters" of DNA," says Professor Weitz. And he added that their technology allows you to produce and analyze droplets at a speed of up to a million per second.
According to the authors of the work, their invention will dramatically reduce the cost of sequencing. The fact is that now the lion's share of costs falls on reagents. Nanoliter droplets allow you to use only the required amount of reagent without wasting money. The scientist calculated that 30 approaches to sequencing the human genome (such a number is necessary to exclude possible errors) will cost the laboratory only $ 30.
According to MIT, GnuBio intends to refine the device for fast and inexpensive sequencing and supply it to clinical and research laboratories.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru15.06.2010