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Your DNA - dirty deeds done dirt cheap?

By Roger Kalla - posted Wednesday, 15 October 2008


A start-up biotechnology company in the US says their starting price for determining the sequence of the genetic code that makes up the DNA in one set of human chromosomes will be in the order of $5,000.

However there are other players in this intensively competitive market. A leading manufacturer of DNA sequencing hardware said it expected that its newest machine would allow a human genome to be sequenced for $10,000, although that includes only the cost of consumable materials.

The acquisition of the three billion base sequence is thus not the bottleneck in the process of personalised DNA sequencing. Right now the challenge facing these companies is the storage and analysis of the massive amounts of data. The cost for a fully analysed genome is today roughly $350,000. But computing power is as we know following Moore’s law so the costs for the analysis will probably fall within the next two years to match the reduction in price to acquire the raw data.

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So an academic guesstimate is that within two years or by 2010 personalised DNA sequencing will be an affordable reality.

But are we ready for this? Are there policies and laws in place that will cope with the new brave world of personalised genetics?

Or will this be another example of law makers desperately trying to catch up with the advance of science and technology? Governments in Australia need to be putting this on the forward policy agenda if not for the next general election so for the next election cycle. And we need to start to discuss what it all means for us. After all your DNA is a very personal matter.

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About the Author

Dr Roger Kalla is the Director of his own Company, Korn Technologies, and a stakeholder in Australia’s agricultural biotechnology future. He is also a keen part time nordic skier and an avid reader of science fiction novels since his mispent youth in Arctic Sweden. Roger is a proud member of the Full Montes bike riding club of Ivanhoe East.

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