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Next-generation Sequencing: Slowly Moving towards the $1,000 Genome

 
• By Mark Ratner

Even if most attempts to read DNA strands in real time appear stalled and the goal of true single-molecule sequencing has, with the notable exception of Helicos, for the most part given way (at least for the time being) in favor of cluster-based approaches with lower data densities, there's still plenty of opportunity for start-ups to advance the field of next-generation sequencing: with microfluidics, nanotechnology, and biochemistries to better enable direct DNA observation and analysis.

Two-and-a-half years ago in START-UP, Oxford Biosciences VC Doug Fambrough, PhD, divided the companies developing next-generation sequencing technologies into five categories: those who offered incremental improvements to the sequencing process; microfluidics specialists that could make front-end sample preparation more efficient; companies relying on PCR-based sequence amplification; companies attempting to sequence by base addition with little or no amplification; and firms attempting to read sequence "in real time" as strands of DNA passed through an apparatus. (See "Making a New, Big Splash in the Sequencing Market," START-UP, May 2004, Also see "Making a New, Big Splash in the Sequencing Market" - Scrip, 1 May, 2004..)

The categories still hold up today, Fambrough says, and understandably, certain fields have made progress while others haven’t. Attempts to read DNA in real time, for example, appear stalled, he...

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