When the human genome was first sequenced about a decade ago, the achievement took years and cost $1 billion. Now, scientists and entrepreneurs are predicting that the task will soon take just under 6 hours, with a price tag of just $900. A company called Oxford Nanopore Technologies claims it will accomplish this feat using a device that can plug into your computer’s USB port. The key to this remarkable rate of progress? A technology called nanopore sequencing, which allows researchers to determine the sequence of base pairs in an individual’s DNA without taking it apart.
Traditional DNA sequencing techniques involves making many copies of an individual’s genome, cutting it into millions of small fragments, and using radioactively-labelled bases to determine the exact sequence of the four bases that make up DNA—adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine, often abbreviated A, G, C and T. Currently, sequencing using advanced versions of this technique takes about a week and costs roughly $18,000. The equipment takes up a lab bench and requires technicians to process the DNA sample before and after sequencing.
As reported by Science, nanopore sequencing could speed up and simplify the process dramatically. The approach threads DNA continuously through microscopic protein pores—each so small that 25,000 can fit within the diameter of a human hair—and monitors the electrical current, which fluctuates slightly with each different type of base. As a result, the precise order of every single one of your roughly 3.2 billion bases might soon be able to be determined over the course of a mere business day.
via Quick and Cheap DNA Sequencing On the Horizon?
