Science
Can Start-Ups Significantly Lower the Cost of Gene Sequencing?

However now, “Illumina has a bunch of patents, and they’re about to run out,” stated Dr. Gelb. “Others are prepared to maneuver in.” Ultima has raised a reported $600 million in funding since 2015.
On the Advances in Genome Biology and Know-how convention final June, greater than a dozen sequencing and instrumentation applied sciences had been introduced, stated Leisa Zigman, president of the Genome Partnership. Two sequencing firms that contended with Ultima for consideration had been Singular Genomics and Ingredient Biosciences, whose sequencers are within the $300,000 vary, and compete, they are saying, with models which are at the moment $1 million. (Ultima has not revealed pricing, though it stated it has offered models.) Illumina not too long ago introduced a brand new line of machines that will ship a whole sequence for $200.
As thrilling because the scientific group finds this, it stays to be seen how the latest sequencers will carry out with so few of them offered. “The $100, $1000 or $10 genome makes an awesome headline,” acknowledged Molly He, founding father of Ingredient Biosciences, “however what counts is what’s actionable, what could be utilized on the bedside.”
Ultima has confronted some skepticism due to a recognized problem sequencing homopolymers, that are consecutive similar bits of genetic materials. “Each system has completely different gaps,” Dr. Almogy stated. The 11 prospects who’ve bought or positioned an order, he claimed, are “totally conscious” of the difficulty and deem it unimportant to them.
Some practitioners are usually not so sanguine. “Is that this able to go?” Dr. Gelb stated. “The reply most individuals have is, ‘We aren’t certain.’” Gaps or errors in sequencing might result in outcomes that aren’t sufficiently clinically correct.
Another excuse for skepticism: $100 sequences have been promised earlier than — MGI Tech Co., Ltd., a genetics firm based mostly in China, did so on the A.G.B.T. convention in 2020 — however have but to materialize.
Critiques apart, scientists foresee a mixture of latest know-how and new competitors additional driving down the price of sequencing a whole genome. And lots of see a significant transformation in analysis and medication in consequence.