By ROB WATERS - BLOOMBERG.COM
Added: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 UTC

Thanks to Mike for the link.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aLk8iDDyXCSE

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Complete Genomics, a Silicon Valley company backed by venture capitalists, produced complete sequences of three people’s DNA at an average cost of $4,500, accelerating the race to develop faster, cheaper gene-mapping systems.

That’s about one-tenth as cheap as the $48,000 effort reported in August by Helicos Biosciences Corp. of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The first human genome map was completed by researchers in 2001 at an estimated cost of more than $100 million, according to a report published today in the journal Science. Complete Genomics funded the research.

Helicos, Illumina Inc. of San Diego, Pacific Biosciences Inc. of Menlo Park, California, and Roche Holding AG of Basel, Switzerland, are competitors trying to develop technology that would map the DNA of individuals for less than $1,000 and to sell systems to government and academic researchers. Complete Genomics is pursuing a different strategy, contracting with research institutions to perform genomic scans under contract, said Chief Executive Officer Clifford Reid.

“Our mission is to sequence a million genomes over the next five years,” Reid said in a telephone interview on Nov. 3. “That’s 1,000 people in each of 1,000 disease studies. By the time we’ve done that, we will have a deep understanding of the genetic basis of all the major human diseases.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aLk8iDDyXCSE

TAGGED: GENETICS, TECHNOLOGY