Originally published August 9 2005
Genome sequencing possible for the wealthy
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Scientists have developed a new way to map genomes at a cost of $2.2 million per genome, but hope to bring the cost down to $1,000 eventually.
George Church and colleagues at Harvard Medical School hope eventually to reduce the cost further to $1,000 per genome -- the entire DNA code of a person, plant or other organism.
Their new method, described in a report in the journal Science, bypasses the traditional gel-based technology for analyzing DNA and instead uses color-coded beads, a microscope and a camera.
They said it costs about one-ninth the current cost of sequencing a genome, which involves using E.coli bacteria as an incubator to generate the genetic material, separating it out, breaking it apart and laying it onto a gel.
DNA, short for deoxyribonucleic acid, is made up of repeats of four nucleotide bases called A,C,T and G for short.
Each nucleotide carries a slightly different charge and thus can be filtered using a process called electrophoresis.
Church's team replicated thousands of DNA snippets at once, each snippet on its own tiny bead just one micron in diameter.
One of four fluorescent dyes corresponding to the four DNA bases attaches, depending on which base is present.
"As the computer controls the chemicals flowing in, the colors of the beads change to reveal which base (A,C,G, or T) is present at each sequential position of the DNA," Church said.
Right now the system must use an existing genome map as a reference -- it cannot sequence a new genome from scratch.
But it worked to show the genetic differences between a new kind of E. coli bacterium and the existing E. coli genome map that has been published, Church said.
The idea is to produce a technology that could be used to compare one person's genome, for example, to the existing human genome map and find an individual's differences.
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