Genomes are getting cheaper before our eyes

According to Nature, the American biotech company Illumina announced that it was able to quickly (in a few weeks) read (sequence) the individual human genome, spending only 100 thousand dollars.

This is the fastest and cheapest result to date. Previously, the individual genome of James Watson, the discoverer of the structure of DNA, was read in two months and cost about $ 1 million. The first human genome was sequenced for a whole decade, for which about $ 3 billion was spent.

For the time being, the scientific community refrains from commenting, since Illumina has not yet published the results of its research in any of the scientific peer-reviewed journals. In addition, the cost of sequencing can be calculated in different ways, so it is not yet clear how to correlate new data with existing ones. But if the company really managed to achieve a 10-fold reduction in the cost of the sequencing process, then this will be a serious breakthrough in the field of individual genome research.

Recall that the American National Institutes of Health (US National Institutes of Health – NIH) announced a $ 10 million reward to anyone who finds a way to sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days.

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Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru12.02.2008