Genetics and Health

Cheaper DNA Sequencing

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on August 5th, 2005

Following on the heels of this week’s news that 454 Life Science is able to sequence DNA 100 times faster than ever before, researchers at Harvard Medical School have devised a new method, called multiplex polony sequencing, that costs only about one-ninth that of current sequencing systems. (Scientific American, August 5, 2005)

Using an epifluroresence microscope, a digital camera, and microscopic beads about one micron wide, Jay Shendure and colleagues sequenced the E. coli genome with fewer than 1 mistake per million base pairs. While this error rate is not on par with the Sanger technique, which is the current standard, multiplex polony sequencing was able to detect small mutations.

This new technique is not exactly cheap and easy for the average person, but it shows that scientists have the ingenuity to develop diagnostics and therapeutics that will be cheaper, faster, and more accurate. It’s a good thing that will lead to improved health care for us all.

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POSTED IN: Genetic Ingenuity