ew Techniques Bring $1,000 Personal Genome Closer to Reality

The geneticists dream of a $1,000 personal genome may be moving a little closer to reality thanks to new methods of DNA sequencing. Many scientists believed that it would be not be possible to bring the price of DNA sequencing down to even close of $1,000 with old sequencing methods, such as electrophoresis. Thus, a lot of recent research has focused on discovering cheaper, faster ways of taking that all-important snapshot of DNA. In April this year, researchers at biotech company Caltech announced that they had achieved successful results with a technique known as single molecule sequencing (SMS). SMS uses a fluorescent label to mark and track the free molecules that surround DNA, and thus enables the researchers to see which molecules are used when DNA makes a copy of itself. More recently, Harvard researcher George Church and colleagues have made significant progress with a technique in which DNA is bathed in different frequencies of light in order to produce a color-coded picture of the sequence. Another promising technique, using lasers, is currently under development by researchers at US Genomics. Even though these new techniques appear promising, none of them solves all of the shortcomings of electrophoresis, and many scientists agree that the $1,000 is still a long way off. One such sceptic is Elaine Mardis, a genetics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, she estimates that it will take 10 to 15 years before the dream becomes reality.

SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.ap.org on the 7th September 2003.