Comments on: Knome Lowers Price of Full Genome From $350,000 to $99,000

By: Hair Raiser § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

Hair Raiser § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:31:20 +0000

[...] fourth, Knome, has got George Church on board but is only for high-rollers who are willing to spend $99,000 for their entire genome on blinged-out flash [...]

By: WebMax

WebMax — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 09:50:59 +0000

You can either wait untill it’s cheap and the market has saturated or you can buy it now and plause with the riches. In my opinion, it’s way over priced!

By: Irish Genealogical

Irish Genealogical — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:51:30 +0000

I'd love to have this done, but I think I'll wait until the price drops into the lower 4-digits. It may not take long. I remember when I decided to wait to get a portable DVD player when they were about $600 each. By the next year, they were available for less than $100. Patience is the key! Irish Genealogical's last blog post..Irish Historyâ€“3 Reasons You Should Be Studying It for Your Genealogy Research

By: ScienceSealedDelivered

ScienceSealedDelivered — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:15:21 +0000

Iâ€™ve predicted that I will be able to purchase genome sequencing for $1,000 or less by December 31, 2009. Think Iâ€™ll make it? Heh. How long till somebody starts selling forged genomic sequences? ScienceSealedDelivered's last blog post..WWF: Viewing Trees As The World's Lungs

By: Chinese, African (Yoruba E) Genomes Sequenced

Chinese, African (Yoruba E) Genomes Sequenced — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:29:55 +0000

[...] introduce somewhere in the realm of 80,000 false positive variants per genome." http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/2009/04/11/knome-lowers-price-of-full-genome-from-350000-to-990…If the researchers who did these 4 full sequences want their results to be used by others, they [...]

By: Worth It Yet? | The Daily Scan | GenomeWeb

Worth It Yet? | The Daily Scan | GenomeWeb — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:22:39 +0000

[...] computers to use the KnomeXplorer. Blaine Bettinger at the Genetic Genealogist adds that he is encouraged by the price mentioned by Church. "I've predicted that I will be able to purchase genome sequencing for $1,000 or less by December [...]

By: Harry Key

Harry Key — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:22:08 +0000

This number HAS to have been taken OUT OF CONTEXT… Just under $100K is about right for a high quality whole genome sequence today, plus interpretation, etc.

By: Daniel MacArthur

Daniel MacArthur — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:05:40 +0000

Heh – coincidentally, I posted on Complete’s cut-backs yesterday, albeit very briefly. The current financial crisis is one of the major reasons why I’m predicting my own genome sequence won’t be affordable until perhaps late 2010.

Complete’s woes illustrate just now incredibly difficult it is to get hold of venture capital these days. I don’t expect the well-established sequencing providers to be hit too hard by this, but it will probably have a stifling effect on up-and-coming innovators in the industry over the next one to two years.

I’m guessing both Complete Genomics and Pac Bio will still launch as predicted, and we’ll definitely see some huge improvements in established sequencing technologies (e.g. Illumina looks to be on track to be able to generate a high-quality 30X human genome sequence in a single instrument run for perhaps $10-20,000 by end-2009). Still, the NEXT generation of techs – the ones that will realistically take us down to a $1000 retail genome – may well end up being substantially delayed.

By: Blaine Bettinger

Blaine Bettinger — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:55:44 +0000

Daniel – My best guess is that you’re correct; it’s not looking good for a DTC $1,000 genome by Dec. 31 (even a low-quality sequence). I knew when I made that prediction 2 years ago, however, that the often repeated prediction of “5 to 10 years” was way off.

By the way, did you see the recent news that Complete Genomics has been making cutbacks? I wonder how that will affect future development and price reductions for Complete (and other cutting-edge sequencing companies).

By: Daniel MacArthur

Daniel MacArthur — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:39:27 +0000

Hey Blaine,

Knome dropped its price to $100,000 late last year.

As for a $1000 retail genome this year, I think it might be a stretch. Complete Genomics will be offering a sequence for around $5000 within a couple of months, but that won’t be offered direct-to-consumer – Knome has been in discussions with Complete about using their service, but you can expect them to add at least another few thousand dollars mark-up to cover the non-trivial costs of interpretation.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that the quality of current sequencing technologies leaves much to be desired – the top-of-the-line second-generation sequencing platforms are unable to sequence around 10-15% of the genome (due to its highly repetitive nature), and also have a high false positive rate: Complete Genomics estimates its current technology will introduce somewhere in the realm of 80,000 false positive variants per genome.

There are still companies in stealth mode that might leap out with a high-quality $1000 genome by the end of the year, but at this stage I’m expecting to buy my own genome somewhere in mid- to late-2010.