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XPrize Pulls Plug On $10 Million Genomics Competition
sciencehabit writes "The XPrize Foundation has scrapped its high-profile $10 million genomics challenge set for next month after attracting only two competitors to the sequencing contest. The Archon Genomics XPRIZE began with much fanfare 7 years ago with the aim of boosting medical genomics by offering a $10 million award to the first team to sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days for no more than $10,000 each. After complaints about the tight deadline and unclear judging criteria, the foundation revised the rules in October 2011: The objective was to sequence the genomes of 100 centenarians with high accuracy and 98% completeness within 30 days for $1000 or less. Interest was tepid, however, and only two of the eight contenders in the original contest registered by the 31 May deadline — the company Ion Torrent, and George Church's lab at Harvard University."
What we realized is that genome sequencing technology is plummeting in cost and increasing in speed independent of our competition. Today, companies can do this for less than $5,000 per genome, in a few days or less - and are moving quickly towards the goals we set for the prize.
If you look at the graphs at https://www.genome.gov/sequencingcosts/ what it actually shows is that after plummeting faster than Moore's Law for 3 years between 2008 and 2011, the cost has been basically flat for the past year and a half, probably due to lack of competition.
You sound pretty stupid. $10,000,000 - $1000 per 100 people = $9,900,000 for 30 days work or $33k a day after cost!
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
Not as great as it sounds—you need to consider the R&D costs too. Those could easily run into the millions, especially when you're building a device that can cost as much as half a million and requires innovative, scalable analytical biochemistry and biophysics. I don't know the exact industry figures, but I think the anonymous commenter is probably more right than not.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
Except that if you're in the business the R&D costs are par for the course, you HAVE to do that anyways to stay relevant. Do you want to be industry standard or leading the industry? This isn't one of those Xprises where joe and his mom can enter.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
This was last friday.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
But it still leaves the point that the prize being too small may have been part of the reason why there were only two entrants. There are lots of players in the sequencing game, but as arobatino pointed out, the industry has slowed to a halt because it's not currently profitable to push the boundaries of technology—sequencing companies make all of their money from selling chemicals (much like printer companies and ink) and the demand just hasn't been escalating like they hoped. The X-Prize is thus a way to justify trying to meet the goals set out by the competition organizers due to short-term profitability, and if it's too low, then not many groups are going to try and pursue it (as demonstrated.)
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
Why? It's not like every Mom & Pop operation around could enter this contest to begin with....
The winner will retire, one productive scientist less.
Very few scientists are in it for the money. Many would love $10M to invest in a lab or fund their Nobel dream research. Many scientists love their work. It is like the Iowa farmer who won five million in the lottery. A reporter asked him what he would do with the money. His answer was "I'll probably just keep farming till it is gone."
Though to be honest, a 25% participation rate isn't anything horrible, in fact, has any XPrize had more participation from established companies? You have to bet against future profits as well. If the current standard is $5000, a 5x reduction in price should make you incredibly attractive to anyone looking to sequence. The XPrize people are just being dicks towards those who have outlayed cash to try and accomplish this.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
According to the TFA, the prize was cancelled because advances in technology have enabled teams to actually win. Hmm...
1. Hold contest to motivate scientists to achieve technological leaps
2. Cancel contest when winning is inevitable
3. Profit!
Also it'd likely be going to a team, and they would of course need access to a pretty high tech lab to even compete.
Ok, since two people actually modded this up, I bite. You want to build a genetic weapon that eliminates races because they are poor? Or because you blame them for negative behaviors? No you don't. Because if this was created (which it can't because you seem to tie skin pigment with social ills) the Arab races could use this to do the exact same thing. You see, they believe just like you that they are the decent society and everyone else needs to be groomed away, as you say.
As for the xprize itself, there is too much greed. Yes, greed. Not everything should be about profit. Its stagnant because no one wants to sink billions into finding a cure for the betterment of everyone. To be clear, no one wants to be the one that gives billions for no other reason that to make the better place. Until someone does, this is how things will go.
There are actually about a couple dozen companies that could realistically compete, in addition to labs like Church's. (This list includes them, along with some ancillary service companies.) The eight participants mentioned were merely those parties that had announced intent earlier; the rules have been revised and the other six gave up. The fact that it never attracted participants like Illumina, arguably the biggest name in sequencing, shows that the technology just isn't commercially viable enough, even with the possibility of the $10M subsidy if they win.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
The winner will retire, one productive scientist less.
Very few scientists are in it for the money. Many would love $10M to invest in a lab or fund their Nobel dream research. Many scientists love their work. It is like the Iowa farmer who won five million in the lottery. A reporter asked him what he would do with the money. His answer was "I'll probably just keep farming till it is gone."
Oh, such altruistic scientists. Scientists most definitely are in it for the money. It's called publish or perish. It's just that they don't get to benefit directly from the money, their university does and in return they get to keep their job. But, don't kid yourself, they have bills to pay, kids to send to college and plain old greed, just like everybody else. If that weren't the case, there wouldn't need to be an XPrize to begin with.
Genomics is an incredibly well funded field. This is not like rocketry where the core technology is only used by a few big contractors and government agencies. There are hundreds of very competent small contract research organizations in the US competing for business.
Looking just at the "non-traditional cutting edge hardware" part of genetics, DARPA has a $50M+ program, Living Foundries, that many of the people mentioned in the X-Prize have won grants under.
When you have a situation where even fringe ideas are well funded in powerhouse mainstream laboratories (i.e. George Church), things will move along pretty well.
(Prices for sequencing haven't dropped significantly in the last few years, but what do you expect? There needs to be some time in between hardware upgrade cycles, not everyone is Intel. The last few years haven't exactly been the best, economically.)
Oh, such altruistic scientists. Scientists most definitely are in it for the money. It's called publish or perish. It's just that they don't get to benefit directly from the money, their university does and in return they get to keep their job. But, don't kid yourself, they have bills to pay, kids to send to college and plain old greed, just like everybody else. If that weren't the case, there wouldn't need to be an XPrize to begin with.
I don't think you understand the difference between "being in it for the money", and "being able to survive while doing it"...
I think the assessment that they aren't in it for the money is completely accurate, but they doesn't negate the fact that they want to continue being in it, and not be in poverty.