Looks like my longbet idea has support...
Way back in 2003, I postulated that it would eventually be possible to cheaply get one's entire genome sequence. Looks like XPrize, who already succeeded in encouraging a low-cost civilian space race, is now considering pushing for the same thing to happen in the gene sequencing field. Hopefully, someone will succeed by 2013, so I can prove Joy wrong...
Comments
The prize appears to be for rapid and accurate, rather than affordable, screening. The assumption, of course, is that you have to make breakthroughs that yield affordability to sequence a hundred human genomes in a couple weeks, but I'd bet on capacity and speed before I'd bet on affordability. A full sequencing center can currently do a novel microbial genome every day, but it's not necessarily affordable (more than a thousand bucks, and much smaller than a human genome).
And now I'm having funny flashbacks to GATTACA, where you get someone's genetic sequence on a SCROLL OF PAPER after submitting a test sample. :)
Posted by: Alex | January 27, 2006 11:31 AM
Yeah, I noticed that, too, but, anything that can be done on a large scale can be done vastly more cheaply than now.... if you could, for instance, scale it to ~$1000, it's not unreasonable to guess that insurance companies might be willing to underright the cost just to be able to do preventive care.
Yeah, I remember being pretty amused by some of the elements in GATTACA, too. All the same, it should be possible to fit snugly on a USB drive, no problem, right?
Posted by: bp | January 27, 2006 06:26 PM