When the Human Genome Project finished sequencing the first human genome earlier this decade, the price tag for the endeavor had reached almost $3 billion. Now, IBM has announced details of its effort to bring the cost of sequencing a person's genome down to below $1,000--and the company says it could go as low as $100. While IBM is hardly the only company racing towards these goals, the company's chip-based approach makes it a serious contender. The company's technique involves
drilling tiny nanometer-size holes through computer-like silicon chips, then passing DNA strands through them to read the information contained in their genetic code. “We are merging computational biology and nanotechnology skills to produce something that will be very useful to the future of medicine” [Wired.com]
, says IBM scientist Gustavo Stolovitzky. Stolovitzky says the work could usher in a new era of personalized medicine, in which patients routinely have their ...
