Moore-ish Law
Complete Genomics says it will start charging only $5,000 next year for determining the sequence of the genetic code that makes up the DNA in one set of human chromosomes. This would represent another step toward of the “$1,000 genome,” the price at which it might become commonplace for people to obtain their entire DNA sequences, giving them information on what diseases they might be predisposed to or what drugs would work best for them.
The cost of DNA sequencing has dropped by a factor of 10 every year for the last four years, a faster rate of decline than even for computers, says George M. Church.
The first human genome sequence, completed by the federally financed Human Genome Project in 2003, is estimated to have cost a few hundred million dollars. In 2007, the genome sequence of James D. Watson was completed at a cost of about $1 million.
Today, the cost is about $100,000, according to Chad Nusbaum, of the Broad Institute.
Applied Biosystems recently announced that it expected its newest machine would allow a human genome to be sequenced for $10,000.
Right now, scientists studying diseases look at only particular locations in the DNA because it is too expensive to determine the entire DNA sequence. An entire sequence would probably provide more complete information.
“Dawn of Low-Price Mapping Could Broaden DNA Uses,” by Andrew Pollack