New Method To Revolutionize DNA Sequencing

An anonymous reader writes "A new method of DNA sequencing published this week in Science identifies incorporation of single bases by fluorescence. This has been shown to increase read lengths from 20 bases (454 sequencing) to >4000 bases, with a 99.3% accuracy. Single molecule reading can reduce costs and increase the rate at which reads can be performed. 'So far, the team has built a chip housing 3000 ZMWs [waveguides], which the company hopes will hit the market in 2010. By 2013, it aims to squeeze a million ZMWs [waveguides] onto a single chip and observe DNA being assembled in each simultaneously. Company founder Stephen Turner estimates that such a chip would be able to sequence an entire human genome in under half an hour to 99.999 per cent accuracy for under $1000.'"

Comments

Re:99.3% accurate?

[Maximum Prophet]

How many errors are introduced during normal human reproduction? The dogs they've cloned so far are less than 99.999% identical.

Re:99.3% accurate?

[Adriax]

Or you could run a parallel processing setup, 3-5 sequencing chips all given the same sample at the same time. More expensive, but you'd get that effective 100% rate in the half hour time.

$5k for a genetic sequencer that could give effectively 100% accuracy in half an hour would be pittance for pretty much every hospital in the US.
Hell, the first malpractice lawsuit it prevents (detect a disorder that would make a commonly used treatment crippling or fatal to the patient) would pay for the machine 1000 times over.