As human genome sequencing becomes a hotter subject in today’s medical field, IBM just announced it will join the race to provide cheap DNA analysis.
Many specialized labs, companies and universities have been working on the project for years, and IBM seems to be a bit behind in the game, but tech journalists have gone wild over the news: PC World says that IBM will “expand the life span of humans,” while the New York Times’ John Markoff predicts that the company will cut the cost of DNA sequencing to under $100, “making a personal genome cheaper than a ticket to a Broadway play.”
The IBM approach to genome sequencing is based on passing strings of DNA through tiny holes, just a nanometer wide, drilled on semiconducting materials. Since DNA is charged, by applying a voltage they should be able to get the DNA through the holes. During this process the DNA reading should take place, even though IBM hasn’t yet said exactly how.
IBM has taken up quite a challenge since there are tens of companies ahead of it in the low-cost genome sequencing business. In their favor, we have to consider that DNA analysis is becoming more and more about storage and interpretation of a large quantity of data, an art that IBM has mastered. IBM is also painting this as a sort of exploratory project; a scientist there tells PC World that “We’re in a process in which we will have milestones … [over] three years. At the end of three years we will know if it’s feasible or not.”
In three years’ time this sector’s scene will be totally different from now. It is hard to predict who will win the low-cost challenge: at the Personal Genomes meeting in Cold Spring Harbor last month, sequencing pioneer George Church listed 17 competitors in the “ultra low-cost sequencing space”.
