Aggregated News
A Stanford engineer has invented a new technology for decoding DNA and used it to decode his own genome for less than $50,000.
The engineer, Stephen R. Quake, says the low cost "will democratize access to the fruits of the genome revolution" by enabling many labs and hospitals to decode whole human genomes.
Until now only companies or genome sequencing centers, equipped with large staffs and hundreds of machines, have been able to decipher the three billion units in a human genome.
Dr. Quake's machine, the Heliscope Single Molecule Sequencer, can decode or sequence a human genome in four weeks with a staff of three people. The machine is made by a company he founded, Helicos Biosciences, and costs "about $1 million, depending on how hard you bargain," he said.
Only seven human genomes have been fully sequenced. They are those of J. Craig Venter, a pioneer of DNA decoding; James D. Watson, the co-discoverer of the DNA double helix; two Koreans; a Chinese; a Yoruban; and a leukemia victim. Dr. Quake's seems to be the eighth full genome, not...
The engineer, Stephen R. Quake, says the low cost "will democratize access to the fruits of the genome revolution" by enabling many labs and hospitals to decode whole human genomes.
Until now only companies or genome sequencing centers, equipped with large staffs and hundreds of machines, have been able to decipher the three billion units in a human genome.
Dr. Quake's machine, the Heliscope Single Molecule Sequencer, can decode or sequence a human genome in four weeks with a staff of three people. The machine is made by a company he founded, Helicos Biosciences, and costs "about $1 million, depending on how hard you bargain," he said.
Only seven human genomes have been fully sequenced. They are those of J. Craig Venter, a pioneer of DNA decoding; James D. Watson, the co-discoverer of the DNA double helix; two Koreans; a Chinese; a Yoruban; and a leukemia victim. Dr. Quake's seems to be the eighth full genome, not...