The Era of Fast, Cheap Genome Sequencing Is Here

Each person has a unique set of As, Cs, Gs, and Ts that make up the human genome. It used to take a lot of money, time, and effort to figure out the sequence of all those letters. Thousands of researchers worked on the Human genome project. There was a final cost of over $2 billion.

The 1990 project helped scientists uncover genetic drivers of cancer and many inherited diseases while spurring the development of at- home DNA tests. Researchers began to sequence more genomes from plants, animals, andbacteria. Ten years ago it cost a lot to sequence a human genome. That dropped to $1,000 a few years ago. It's about $600 today.

The price of sequencing is about to go down even more. At an industry event in San Diego today, Illumina unveiled its newest machine, the NovaSeq X series. The company, which controls around 80 percent of the market, believes its new technology will slash the cost to just $200 per human genome and provide a readout at twice the speed. According to Francis deSouza, the more powerful model will be able to sequence 20,000 genomes annually. The new machines are going to be shipped next year.

We believe we are about to enter the era ofgenomic medicine going mainstream. The next generation of scenographers is required to do that. We need price points to come down so that more people can use genomic medicine.

Blood tests that can detect cancer early, and diagnoses for people with rare diseases who have been looking for answers, are just some of the things that have been made possible by the use of Sequencing. The Covid-19 vaccine was developed as soon as the first blueprint of the virus's genome was produced. The technology has become essential in research labs. It isn't very common in medicine. The price tag is a factor. Insurance doesn't always cover the cost of genetic counseling, and clinical interpretation can drive the price to a few thousand dollars for patients.