Clients in the News: Illumina
Illumina's Cheap New Gene Machine
A new DNA reader could turbocharge research into cancer and autism
By: Matthew Herper, Forbes
The biotech company Illumina is introducing a new machine that it says will decode a person's DNA in one week using $10,000 worth of materials--five times cheaper than any other competing gadget on the market
The move represents the latest salvo in a war among several competing gene-sequencing companies to develop faster and cheaper DNA decoding machines. It moves scientists one step closer to the holy grail of being able to decode a person's entire genetic sequence for $1,000.
Over the last decade the cost of sequencing a single person's genetic material has shrunk by a factor of 10. The plummeting price of DNA sequencing is as important to medicine as cheaper microprocessors is to technology, because understanding how genes interact to cause disease will require comparing the DNA sequences of hundreds or thousands of patients. Within a few years many researchers believe the resulting information will start to become medically useful. Ultimately, top geneticists envision a day when every baby that is born has its entire genome sequenced at birth.
Several upstart companies are working on superfast DNA sequencers that work via new technologies. But the Illumina ( ILMN - news - people ) machine appears to raise the bar for these companies by lowering the cost of sequencing with technology that resembles what scientists are already using. That could help cement San Diego's Illumina as the workhorse option for gene scientists.
"It's a pretty dramatic leap," says Elaine Mardis, a geneticist at Washington University in St. Louis, who was shown the machine on Monday. "This really provides a platform that is going to propel studies of complex diseases like cancer and autism," she says. If the machines live up to their promise, one machine will allow her to generate the same amount of genetic data in a week that would previously have required six machines running for 10 days.
The new machine, the HiSeq2000, will begin shipping next month with a cost of $690,000 vs. $500,000 for Illumina's current model. It is being unveiled today at J.P. Morgan's investment conference in San Francisco. The Beijing Genomics Institute will be the first customer, purchasing 128 of the new machines.
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