

$900 DNA sequencing USB stick announced by OxNano - kanzure
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21495-usb-stick-can-sequence-dna-in-seconds.html

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lunchbox
Here is a graph that shows the fall in human genome sequencing costs over
time:

<http://www.genome.gov/images/content/cost_per_genome.jpg>

It's surpassing Moore's law. Looks like pretty soon we'll reach the mythical
$1000 mark.

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teamonkey
What was it that caused such a rapid change after 2007?

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ramanujan
Illumina acquired Solexa, and shipped the first Genome Analyzer (the ancestor
of the HiSeq). Clive Brown was a central figure at Solexa during their rise
and acquisition, and has been at Oxford Nanopore for the last few years (he's
the one who gave the talk).

There's a lot of hype in genomics, but Brown is one of the few who has
delivered, which is part of the reason why MinION is getting the benefit of
the doubt. Very exciting announcement.

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hcarvalhoalves
That is __so __cool, and the mechanics they used to read the molecules and
miniaturize the equipment look incredibly clever for me, as an ignorant in
chemistry. Biology is getting more and more "hackable". It seems we are seeing
the same kind of evolution once happened with computers - what was once
unreachable and reserved for just a couple people (big mainframes) get
increasingly cheap and ubiquitous.

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papa_bear
This blog post gives some more in depth information:
[http://pathogenomics.bham.ac.uk/blog/2012/02/oxford-
nanopore...](http://pathogenomics.bham.ac.uk/blog/2012/02/oxford-nanopore-
megaton-announcement-why-do-you-need-a-machine-exclusive-interview-for-this-
blog/)

They claim the accuracy is 96% and has the potential to get even better, which
is even cooler given the long read length.

However, any error can be pretty upsetting and most next gen sequencers
overcome this by doing many reads per base. I'm guessing that the current
behemoth machines would be kept around for the time being to assemble the
final, error free sequences?

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nmz787
current behemoth machines have errors too, often the best way to get a really
polished sequence is to sequence on machines which have different type of
errors, and interlace the data appropriately.

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LuisZaman
But how much are the enzymes going to cost?

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gus_massa
I don't understand the downvotes, because it seems to be an interesting
question, and the article is not very clear.

Is $900 the price for the gadget alone? Is the price for the gadget + 1 time
enzyme kit? Is it the price of each repetition of the analysis (enzyme +
disposables), but there is an additional initial cost (gadget)? This thing is
reusable, or you must buy a new whole kit each time?

~~~
Natsu
Ars had its own article on this saying that you do not need enzymes. It's
forcing the molecule through a tiny pore and reading the change in an
electrical signal. That said, one problem mentioned is that the error rate is
quite high.

[http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2012/02/nanopore-tech-
br...](http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2012/02/nanopore-tech-brings-
rackmounted-genome-machines-usb-based-dna-sensors.ars)

~~~
gus_massa
This article says:

"Both GridION and MinION operate using the same technology: DNA is added to a
solution containing enzymes that bind to the end of each strand. When a
current is applied across the solution these enzymes and DNA are drawn to
hundreds of wells in a membrane at the bottom of the solution, each just 10
micrometres in diameter."

Perhaps this method use fewer enzymes than the old one.

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ribosome
10kbp reads would also be very useful for de novo assembly of larger genomes,
particularly in repetitive regions. One company (PacBio) currently claims
reads this long, but the error rate is around 15%.

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aheilbut
Super long reads also going to be incredibly useful for looking at structural
variation (deletions, inversions, translocations).

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rcthompson
And alternative splicing.

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unimpressive
This is crazy.

The original human genome project started in 1990 and took a decade.

Now you can do it in two to six hours for around a grand?

I wonder if we'll be seeing more people public domain their genome?

EDIT: And thats just the "Compare to two decades ago" position.

The real craziness comes when you realize that this will inevitably get
cheaper, and smaller, setting the stage for more advancements in this field.
(I think at this point were all expecting to be able to actually turn genomes
into living things before 2050.)

~~~
nmz787
As to your last comment, JCVI already did that, synthesis is lacking for speed
and cost as compared to sequencing today.

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frisco
Meh, it's more than just synthesis. Synthesis costs are falling faster than
Moores law, too; but you don't get things like epigenetic modifications or
packing for free, and that tech basically doesn't exist yet.

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JunkDNA
The biggest problem has been and will continue to be interpretation of the
results, particularly in human clinical sequencing. _Especially_ as more data
becomes available with advances like this.

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nazgulnarsil
if you build it they will come.

I mean that the existence of a large and continuously growing data set will
incentivize figuring out better ways to analyze it.

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zmmmmm
Edit: deleted my less informed comment ... some more informed discussion of
this can be found on reddit:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/bioinformatics/comments/pu595/oxford...](http://www.reddit.com/r/bioinformatics/comments/pu595/oxford_nanopore_announces_a_nanopore_based/)

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rdl
This is one time use, right?

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tomkinstinch
Is it reusable? Can the protein pores be cleaned and reused?

Even if it's single-use, that cost per bp isn't terrible considering the
capital costs of 454 and Illumina machines.

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Yaggo
I bet that in 20 years, a lab-on-a-chip with integrated DNA sequencer & AI
doctor will be as common & cheap as thermometers today.

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huhtenberg
These are interesting times we are living in.

