In 2003, the first human genome was decoded. By 2010 it still cost around $50,000 to decode one person’s genome. But today, it costs around $600 for the largest sequencing centers – mostly for the chemical – although they charge around $1,000. However, as of this year, a firm shipping DNA to China to be sequenced has brought the price down to $299 – and word has it that Chinese company will soon bring that cost down to only $100.
Stacey Gabriel, director of the genomics platform at the Broad Institute, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said:
I think there is some natural skepticism about whether it’s really for real. But if it’s $100, that would be several-fold cheaper. There is a little bit of buzz because there has not been a big sequencing announcement for a couple of years.
The Chinese company making this possible is BGI. It was founded 20 years ago during China’s participation in the Human Genome Project and has evolved tremendously since then. What started as a research institute that decoded the DNA of pandas and rice plants has turned into a sprawling conglomerate, active in animal cloning, health testing, and contract research.
Up until now, the California firm Illumina has dominated the gene-sequencing scene in the US for more than a decade with its speedy instruments. But that’s all about to change as the Chinese gene giant BGI Group announced it will make genome sequencing cheaper than ever worldwide, breaking the $100 barrier for the first time.
Dennis Grishin, the co-founder of the Boston startup Nebula Genomics (the company sending DNA to BGI to be sequestered for $299), said:
For the last five years, the cost of genome sequencing has been kept at $1,000. I don’t think that is because of technology stagnation, but because Illumina has a monopoly.
BGI says it’s “extreme” DNA sequencing system is capable of decoding the genomes of 100,000 people a year. Rade Drmanac, chief scientific officer of Complete Genomics, a division of BGI Group in San Jose, California, that developed the new technology, said:
These systems would be prioritized for really large-scale population genetics, million-person projects.
The company was able to bring the cost down so dramatically by using a giant Frisbee-size chip, whose elements are just 500 nanometers apart, and by employing a robotic arm to dunk the chip into chemical baths that can be reused.
Drmanac said:
We get twice as much DNA on the surface and three times less reagent use because of the dipping.
The technology works by breaking up a person’s genome into billions of short stretches of DNA and capturing them all on the surface of the giant chip. Next, fresh DNA chemical letters are combined, pairing off together with those fragments. The process gradually synthesizes (builds up) matching strands of genetic information. The machine can determine the sequence of the billions of pieces by detecting the order that letters are added. When the data is puzzled back together on a computer, it produces a full map of a person’s genome.
Drmanac’s super-sequencer would be ideal for a massive project such as the UK’s national program of sequencing 500,000 peoples’ genomes for medical research. One potential project, called All of Us, could be funded by the National Institute of Health, who intends to create a health database containing the sequence of one million American volunteers. Such an endeavor would be possible if genome sequencing becomes cheap enough.
The benefits are vast. It could push the use of applications that also rely on high-throughput DNA sequencing such as measurements of people’s microbiomes (their gut bacteria) and new early-detection blood tests for cancer. In China, they’re already using a similar version of Dramnac’s technology to perform prenatal tests on women.
Drmanac said:
In China, there are 20 million newborns per year. Very quickly they will screen every pregnant woman. I want to drive this to unlimited sequencing, of billions of people.
I am a world citizen and a scientist who fights for the growth of science. I am really happy we merged with BGI because of their aspiration to bring this technology to everyone. They want to solve the big problems that genomics can do, and the only way is to make it affordable.
BGI wants to be seen as an international company, not just a Chinese operation. Drmanac says the company thinks long term and wants to be able to help millions of people around the world someday.
