The '$1,000 genome' may cost $100,000 to understand
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - 09:30
in Biology & Nature
Advances in technology have almost lifted the curtain on the long-awaited era of the "$1,000 genome" a time when all the genes that make up a person can be deciphered for about that amount compared to nearly $1 million a few years ago. But an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine, raises the disconcerting prospect that a price tag of $100,000, by one conservative estimate, is necessary to analyze that genetic data so it can be used in personalized medicine custom designing treatments that fit the patient's genetic endowment.