XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Thursday 21 July 2011

Race intensifies to $1,000 human gene machine - a low-cost semiconductor-based gene sequencing machine -

Race intensifies to $1,000 human gene machine - a low-cost semiconductor-based gene sequencing machine -


Personal genomics, medicine tailored to patient's particular genes, may have come a step closer to the $1,000 genome.

And it is starting with Intel co-founder, Gordon Moore, the man behind the famed "Moore's Law" prediction of exponentially growing computer power.

News of a low-cost semiconductor-based gene sequencing machine comes Wednesday in the journal Nature, reported by a team led by Jonathan Rothberg of Ion Torrent by Life Technologies in Guilford, Conn.

"DNA sequencing and, more recently, massively parallel DNA sequencing has had a profound impact on research and medicine. The reductions in cost and time for generating DNA sequence have resulted in a range of new sequencing applications in cancer, human genetics, infectious diseases, and the study of personal genomes,, as well as in fields as diverse as ecology, and the study of ancient DNA,. Although de novo (new) sequencing costs have dropped substantially, there is a desire to continue to drop the cost of sequencing at an exponential rate consistent with the semiconductor industry's Moore's Law as well as to provide lower cost, faster and more portable devices. This has been operationalized by the desire to reach the $1,000 genome," begins the study.

The team reports the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) "ion chip" based sequencing machine unraveled the genomes of both bacteria and a person, identified as "G. Moore" of European ancestry, better known as Gordon Moore, the man behind "Moore's Law." (Hat tip to Nature News for noting this celebrity genome.)

Intel:  Moore's Law

"We have demonstrated the ability to produce and use a disposable integrated circuit fabricated in standard CMOS foundries to perform, for the first time, 'post-light' genome sequencing of bacterial and human genomes. With fifty billion dollars spent per year on CMOS semiconductor fabrication and packaging technologies, our goal was to leverage that investment to make a highly scalable sequencing technology. Using the G. Moore genome we demonstrated the feasibility of sequencing a human genome," says the study.

Most genome sequencers rely on expensive fluorescent dyes. Moving genome sequencing into semiconductor technology promises to speed genomics, the researchers conclude, saying, "our work suggests that readily available CMOS nodes should enable the production of one-billion sensor ion chips and low-cost routine human genome sequencing."

Read more - http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2011/07/race-to-1000-human-genome-machine-intensifies/1

No comments:

Post a Comment