May 06, 2009

Genome Sequencing for $100 Funded

NABsys scientists, in close collaboration with scientists at Brown University, are developing a proprietary platform to build solid state, electrically addressable nanopore arrays that can sequence DNA without amplification or labeling. This Hybridization-Assisted Nanopore Sequencing platform combines nanopore sequencing with sequencing-by-hybridization (SBH) to create what NABsys believes will be the lowest cost, fastest whole-genome sequencing technology available.

NABsys has been funded for $4 million.

NABsys aims eclipse the $1,000 genome sequencing cost target with a sequencing system that could potentially sequence a person’s DNA for less than $100 in under an hour. NABsys calls its approach “electronic, solid-state DNA sequencing.” In the process, DNA fragments are supposed to flow into nano-sized pores in a silicon chip. As the molecules of DNA pass through the pores, the system detects changes in the electrical current caused by probes attached to the DNA. The company is developing algorithms to reconstruct the data, generated from the electronic detection of multiple DNA fragments, into the sequence of a whole genome.

Applied Biosystems, a division of Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ:LIFE) today announced that its research and development scientists used human disease samples from the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center to sequence an entire human genome in a single run at 17-fold coverage using the SOLiD 3 System, the only next-generation advanced genomic analysis platform to achieve this milestone to date.

Scientists at the HGSC are currently equipped with 10 SOLiD Systems and are using them for a variety of human disease research programs, spanning cancer and genetic disorders. As part of two research projects, the SOLiD technology, equipped with new bead finding and quantitation genomic analysis software, was utilized to perform two sequencing runs. The mate pair run, which contained a sample from a genetic disorder, generated 50 billion mappable bases, or 17-fold sequence coverage of the human genome, which is comprised of approximately 3 billion bases. The second was a fragment run, which contained a sample from a brain cancer patient, and yielded 30 billion mappable bases, or 10-fold sequence coverage of the human genome.

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