IBM Researchers Working Toward Cheap, Fast DNA Reader

Posted by timothy on Tuesday October 6, 2009 @03:54AM from the reminds-me-of-creepy-ibm-ads dept.

nk497 writes "IBM scientists are working on ambitious research where nano-sized holes will be drilled into computer chips and DNA passed through to create a 'genetic code reader.' A DNA molecule would be passed through a hole just three nanometers wide, while an electrical sensor 'reads' the DNA. The challenge of the silicon-based 'DNA Transistor' would be to slow and control the motion of the DNA through the hole so the reader could decode what is inside it. IBM claimed that if the project was successful it could make personalised genome analysis as cheap as $100 to $1,000, and compared it to the first-ever sequencing done for the Human Genome Project, which cost $3 billion."

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Re:Say goodbye to fingerprint scanners on laptops by travisb828 · 2009-10-06 04:17 · Score: 2, Funny

Perhaps this will usher in a golden age of sperm-jacking and blood-letting?
Hasn't the Internet already brought a golden age of sperm-jacking?
Re:The implications are huge by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2009-10-06 04:18 · Score: 3, Funny

dd if=~/OMG_hax/smallpox.img of=/dev/dna0
Summary is wrong by thewils · 2009-10-06 05:24 · Score: 2, Funny

the first-ever sequencing done for the Human Genome Project, which cost $3 billion.
It cost a lot more than that. I mean first we had to evolve from amoeba and create a civilization.

--
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
Re:Amazing! by SEWilco · 2009-10-06 05:45 · Score: 2, Funny

Actually, first we need a device to thread DNA through a tiny hole.