Find out for US$900
Sequencing the human genome started as a US$3 billion project in 1990 being completed 13 years later. Each of our cells contains 23 chromosome pairs and if the DNA sequence in any one of them was stretched out, it would be 6 feet long.
And later this year…
Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd is entering the gene-sequencing race with a new portable device that will allow people to analyze DNA on the go.
The product, called MinION, is about the size of a USB memory stick, the closely held Oxford, England-based company said today. MinION will be ready for sale in the second half of the year at a cost of less than US$900. It’s a smaller version of the GridION device that Oxford Nanopore is developing.
Oxford Nanopore is relying on the two products to spur demand for machines that can decode the building blocks of life, helping to identify new targets for medicines and illuminate crop science. The company is jumping into a market led by Life Technologies Corp. (LIFE) and Illumina Inc. (ILMN), which last month said they’ve built products that can sequence a genome in a day. GridION is designed so that computing equipment can be clustered to sequence an entire human genome in as little as 15 minutes.
“The USB stick is an absolute game-changer,” Oxford Nanopore Chief Executive Officer Gordon Sanghera in a telephone interview. “It’s plug-and-play, on-the-go DNA sequencing.” Full article here
The effects on checking identity and in paternity disputes for example, will be enormous. Any other thoughts on the effects this now cheap technology will have?
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