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Cows Pave the Way for Profits (Dangers?) from Genetic Testing

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by Aaron Saenz on January 12th, 2010
A new genetic test is going to increase milk production in cows and yield big profits.

A new genetic test is going to increase milk production in cows and yield big profits.

While it may take years before widespread genetic testing changes humanity, animals are experiencing a difference today. According to Forbes, a single genetic test for breeding dairy cattle has almost completely replaced older pedigree tests in less than two years. Developed by Curtis Van Tessell at the USDA and performed by Illumina, this test costs only $250, replacing the previous system’s $50,000 price tag! The cheaper testing allows smaller dairy farmers to enter into the profitable business of selling cattle eggs and sperm. Using genetic testing, milk producers predict that the annual increase in US milk production will double to 5%. We’re talking about millions of dollars of increased profit in the United States alone. Van Tessell’s new test demonstrates that the age of widespread genetic evaluation has already started.

When it comes to human genetic testing, Illumina is one of the biggest names in the business. It and competitors like Complete Genomics are aiming to bring whole genome sequencing into the price range of most individuals. Right now, more affordable genetic evaluation can focus on key genes in human DNA. These single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are cheaper to test – companies like 23andMe use them exclusively to great avail. In Van Tessell’s test, SNP tests are used to keep track of 38,000 key differences that the USDA team discovered were important in dairy cattle breeding. One wonders how whole genome sequencing will affect animal husbandry. The bovine genome was recently mapped in 2009. Could we see even more profitable breeding? Maybe greater acceptance of germline genetic engineering? The reverse also could be interesting: how will attitudes about human genome testing change when genetic evaluation becomes a staple on the farm?

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IBM Hypes DNA Transistor, Genomes for Less than $1000

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by Aaron Saenz on October 13th, 2009
The IBM device would read single strands of DNA as they passed through layers of a microchip.

The IBM device would read single strands of DNA as they passed through layers of a microchip.

Sequencing your genome is going to be such big business that everyone wants to get in on it, even if they aren’t ready. In a recent press release, IBM announced that it is working to create a microchip that will sequence DNA by running it through tiny ‘nanopores’. The DNA Transistor will be able to sequence the entire genome rapidly and for less than $1000. While a working prototype of the chip won’t be created for three more years, IBM thinks that the theory and computation behind the concept is sound. If ultimately successful, the computer giant would launch itself to the forefront of the genome sequencing field. For now though, the company is just pushing an idea, not a product. I love it when companies compete in a field, but IBM’s got years of hard work before it could be a genome sequencing competitor. A fact that makes their press release seem premature at best. Still, you should check out the admittedly cool PR video after the break.

The first human genome cost around three billion dollars to sequence. Today, Illumina is offering to do the same for $50,000 and Complete Genomics is looking to a $5000 price tag under certain conditions by the end of next year. But the big hurdle is $1000. At that point, sequencing a genome will become accessible to almost anyone, and could see wide spread adoption in health and medicine. Using genetic information, doctors could provide personalized health care that would target illnesses and choose treatments which best suit your body. Knowing more, we could live much longer.
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Illumina’s Genome Sequencing Service Gets First Customers

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by Aaron Saenz on September 14th, 2009

Illumina-logoThe race to provide you with access to your genome is really heating up. Industry leader Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN) has completed its first genome sequencing service for an individual at the low-low price of $48,000. That’s almost ten times what Complete Genomics plans to charge, but Illumina is offering the service directly to private individuals, not research groups. In fact, this is the first time any one person has had their genome sequenced for less than $50k. Illumina’s performance shows that it is still one of the forces to be reckoned with in whole human genome sequencing.

What are we to make of Illumina’s successful personalized genome sequencing service? It stacks up well against Knome’s KnomeCOMPLETE™ service which is perhaps the only other successful individual genome sequencing service on the market at the moment. Knome is trying hard to remain a contender in the field, but at $99.5k, it’s more than double Illumnia’s price.  With comparable capabilities and results, price becomes the real determining factor between those two companies.

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Get Your Entire Genome From Complete Genomics For $5000

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by Aaron Saenz on August 28th, 2009

Complete Genomics is pushing down the costs of sequencing the human genome.

Complete Genomics is pushing down the costs of sequencing the human genome.

It’s getting progressively cheaper to sequence your entire genome. Earlier in June, Illumina announced it would provide sequencing for close to $50k, half of their original price. Not to be outdone, Complete Genomics just released on Monday that it had gathered $45 million dollars in funding. The Silicon Valley based company is planning to use that money to further develop their streamline sequencing operations so that they can offer a complete genome for just $5000 by next year. CG’s goal is to finish 10,000 sequences by years end 2010. Even though that’s later than we had hoped, it’s still a whole lot of DNA and at the cheapest price for a whole genome seen so far. The question is, can they really pull it off?

We’ve been looking for a company, any company really, to break the $1000 price mark for a complete genome sequencing sometime in the next few years. That’s about the point where retail sales of the service will explode. With their exponentially decreasing price tag, Complete Genomics might be on that path. However, we know of at least one company that is trying to reach that goal by the end of this year. Stay tuned for that story in the next few weeks.

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Google, Papa Brin Step In For 23andme

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by Keith Kleiner on June 19th, 2009

23andme-brin-googleBoth Google and Sergey Brin have made an investment in personal genetics company 23andme in a series B funding round.  This comes on top of a previous investment from both Google and Brin in the series A round in 2007.  On the one hand, this is pretty sketchy.  It is a serious conflict of interest, as Brin is married to 23andme co-founder Anne Wojcicki.  On the other hand, you gotta hand it to Google and Brin for sinking their hands into yet another initiative that is trying to make the world a better place.  Overall though, I wish they had found a less controversial way of doing so.

Brin appears to have sunk $10 million into this series B round, while Google has put in $2.6 million.  As if the financial investments weren’t controversial enough, apparently Google and 23andme have entered into some sort of leasing agreement, though the details of this agreement are not available.

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Complete Genomics – New Information About the Hottest Company in Genetic Sequencing

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by Keith Kleiner on February 10th, 2009

Daniel MacArthur has once again delivered some of the best information on the net about Complete Genomics, the company that is lighting a fire in the genomics community with its claim that it will sequence human genomes for $5,000 apiece in the middle of 2009.  Nature News also has a revealing article with further information.  Daniel spoke directly with Complete’s CEO Clifford Reid and CSO Rade Drmanac as a followup to the Complete Genomics presentation given at AGBT last week.  Daniel’s report is highly technical, so here is a summary for those that don’t want to sift through the myriad details:

Complete Genomics uses a sequencing technology called “short read”, which means that they decode the DNA in small segments and then stitch all of these small segments together to make the whole sequence.  This same technique is used by many of Complete’s competitors, and is plagued with the problem that errors are sometimes introduced into the sequence during the stitching process.  MacArthur notes that Complete Genomics’ current error rate of 0.1%, which is reasonable by current industry standards, would result in 300,000 errors in a 3 billion base pair whole human genome.

So what does this mean?  It means that although Complete Genomics’ ability to accurately decode genomes seems to be within the range of its competitors, it falls short of the 100% accuracy that is ultimately desired.  The upshot is that the coming revolution in genomics in the next few years will be somewhat limited by sequencing that is not 100% accurate.  There is still a great deal of work that can be done on genomes that are 99.9% accurate and great scientific progress will undoubtedly result.  Ideally though, in the next ten years the technology will improve to true 100% accuracy, at which point further doors will be opened in the field of genetic analysis.

MacArthur reminds us that Complete Genomics is committed to only sequencing human genomes, even though genomes of monkeys and other organisms could easily be performed.  The reason:

“focusing only on large-scale human -omics will allow Complete to avoid the worst complexities of the service model (i.e. receiving many types of sample that require processing in many different ways), but still focus on the area where the market is the strongest.”

“Reid says that the goal of Complete is to create “a stream-lined factory” producing complete human genomes; by focusing on just one application (unlike any other genome facility) they can hone this process down to the point that they can do it cheaper and better than anyone else.”

Our interpretation: Complete Genomics is smart!  These guys are carving out the position as the company to go to for human genomic sequencing.  The genomics field is competitive and wide.  By narrowing their focus to human only genome sequencing, Complete Genomics is simplifying their business model and further solidifying their position in the lucrative market for human genome sequencing.

Image: source

Complete Genomics Stuns Genomics Community, Confirms Industry Shattering Capability

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by Keith Kleiner on February 6th, 2009

Daniel MacArthur at Genetic Future has just completed his post covering the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) conference, where an intense battle is taking place as genetic sequencing companies seek to position themselves in the race to bring fast, cheap genetic sequencing to the masses.  The verdict: Complete Genomics has stunned the genomics community by confirming it is on track to blow past the competition.

When reading Daniel’s post you can feel the intensity at the conference as companies at AGBT fight for top bragging rights to deliver the fastest and cheapest genome sequencing capability to the world.  The stakes are extremely high: literally billions of dollars in sales await the company that can dominate in the delivery of affordable, rapid, whole genome sequencing to every human on the planet.

The intensity at the conference reached a climax when Clifford Reid, the CEO of Complete Genomics, delivered his much anticipated presentation to confirm whether or not the company’s industry shattering claim of $5000 sequencing of a whole human genome by mid-2009 was really true.  According to MacArthur, Complete Genomics did not disappoint, and hence a company that nobody had even heard of until it came out of stealth mode in October 2008 now appears to have cemented its position solidly at the front of this high stakes race.

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Archon X Prize Offers $10 million to Revolutionize Gene Sequencing

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by Keith Kleiner on July 25th, 2008

Many people have heard of the original X Prize, which was a $10 million prize given to the first company that could build a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers above the earth’s surface, twice within two weeks. Many people are unaware that this original X Prize has since spawned an entire family of other $10 million X Prize challenges that are ongoing today.

The Archon X Prize is offering $10 million “to the first Team that can build a device and use it to sequence 100
human genomes within 10 days or less, with an accuracy of no more than
one error in every 100,000 bases sequenced, with sequences accurately
covering at least 98% of the genome, and at a recurring cost of no more
than $10,000 per genome.”

The Archon X Prize will accelerate mankind’s efforts to achieve affordable and fast sequencing and analysis of the DNA for every individual on the planet. Once this capability is a reality it will unleash a revolution in our ability to make people healthier, fight disease, and even improve people beyond their original genetic and biological bodies.

Picture from Archon X Prize Website

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