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Company announces low-cost DNA decoding machine

Jan. 12, 2012 - 09:35 By

NEW YORK (AP) _ A biotechnology company announced it has developed a machine to decode an individual's DNA in a day for $1,000, a long-sought price goal for making the genome useful for medical care.

Life Technologies Corp. said Tuesday it was taking orders for the technology, which it expects to deliver in about a year. The Carlsbad, California, company said three major research institutions had already signed up for the $149,000 machine: the Baylor College of Medicine, the Yale School of Medicine and the Broad Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts.


A second company, Illumina of San Diego, also introduced a new technology Tuesday that it said will decode an entire genome in about 24 hours. Its statement did not estimate the cost per genome.

The machines, called sequencers, allow scientists to identify the arrangement of the 3 billion chemical building blocks that make up someone's DNA.

Since the first sequencing of the basic human genome was announced at the White House in 2000, the costs of sequencing DNA have steadily tumbled. The $1,000 target has long been cited as a key step toward making the technique practical for doctors to use to help their patients, such as for revealing vulnerabilities to certain diseases or tailoring medical treatment.

Sequencing whole genomes is now done primarily for research. It's different from the service some companies offer to consumers that cover just part of the genome or particular spots in it, such as for information on ancestry or disease susceptibility.

The $1,000 cost for a whole genome is about the same as many of today's lab tests, said Chad Nussbaum, co-director of the Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program at the Broad Institute. Tuesday's announcement is ``bringing the DNA sequence closer'' to being affordable and fast enough for doctors to use, Nussbaum said. If the machine works as expected, a doctor might send a patient's DNA to a lab and get useful information back in about a week, he said.

Whether genomes from the new machine will actually cost exactly $1,000 will depend on how one calculates that figure, Nussbaum said. But even if it's just in the neighborhood, the technology could become widely adopted by doctors, he said.

Richard Gibbs, who directs the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor, said, ``We will see if the machines really perform as well as described'' in terms of cost and accuracy. ``We're optimistic.''

Nussbaum emphasized that uncovering a deluge of DNA data about a patient is one thing, and being able to analyze it for useful information is quite another.

``You've got to glean the news out of the genome and you've got to give it to the doctor in a usable way,'' he said. The ability to do that analysis is still ``a developing story,'' he said.

In the shorter term, the relatively low cost of the machine itself is important because it will let more research laboratories get into DNA sequencing, Nussbaum said.

Shares of Life Technologies closed Tuesday at $46.17, up 8.3 percent.

 

<관련기사>

1천 달러면 개인 게놈지도 만든다

1천 달러면 개인의 전체 유전자를 해독한 게놈지도를 얻을 수 있게 될 것이라고 영국의 파이낸셜 타임스 인터넷판이 9일(현지시간) 보도했다.

미국의 라이프 테크놀러지(Life Technologies) 사는 개인 DNA의 30억개  염기서 열을 1천 달러로 단 하루만에 해독할 수 있는 이온 프로톤 염기서열해독기를 개발했 다고 이 신문은 전했다.

크기가 레이저 프린터만한 이 염기서열해독기(가격 14만9천달러)는 1월말까지 베일러 대학을 비롯한 미국의 3대 메디컬센터에 인도될 예정이며 그 후 몇 개월에 걸쳐 대학과 상업적 수요자들에게 공급될 것이라고 이 기술을 개발한 라이프 테크놀 러지 사의 조너선 로스버그(Jonathan Rothberg) 박사가 밝혔다.

이렇게 싼 가격으로 하루만에 개인의 전체 유전자를 해독할 수 있게되면 각종 질병을 앓고 있는 환자의 유전자 맞춤형 치료가 촉진될 전망이다.

질병과 유전자 사이의 연관성에 대해 더 많은 것을 알 수 있게 됨으로써 특히 암환자들은 개개인의 유전적 특성에 가장 적합한 치료방법을 선택할 수 있다.

그러나 의료보험회사와 기업들이 보험가입자와 입사지원자들의 DNA자료에  접근 할 수 있게 돼 윤리적인 논란도 예상된다.

베일러 대학 인간게놈염기서열해독센터의 리처드 깁스 소장은 인간게놈을 1천 달러에 해독할 수 있다는 것은 몇 년 전만도 해도 생각지도 못했던 일이라고 말했다 . 

현재는 개인의 전체 유전자를 해독하려면 5천-1만 달러의 비용이 들며 시간도 최장 1주일이 걸린다.