Company to offer low price for complete genetic blueprint

Oct 6, 2008, 16:00 GMT

New York - A California-based company plans to offer to determine a person's complete genetic code sequencing for 5,000 dollars, the lowest so far any biotechnology group can offer, The New York Times said Monday.

Complete Genomics, situated in the Silicon Valley south of San Francisco, said it will offer the technique next year to whoever wants to have a complete set of genomes that make up a person's DNA.

The science of genomics has been trying to determine genes that predispose a person to certain diseases and find the appropriate drugs to fight them.

The Times said the sequencing technology offered by Complete Genomics is not much different from the sequencing machines of its rivals. But executives from Complete Genomics said miniaturization of the technique allows the machine, or sequencer, to use only tiny amounts of enzymes and other materials. Complete Genomics has raised 46 million dollars in capital so far to develop its sequencer machine and use it as a service.

'We're not losing money at 5,000 dollars,' Clifford Reid, the chief executive of Complete Genomics, told The Times.

Reid said Complete Genomics hopes to carry out 1,000 human genome sequences in 2009 and 20,000 in 2010, and reach the goal of 1 million sequences by 2013. To reach its goals, the company needs to raise funds and find partners to build 10 sequencing centres at 50 million dollars each, he said.

Biotech firms have been hoping to lower the cost of performing genome sequences to reach to long-sought goal of 1,000 dollars per sequence that ordinary people can afford, The Times said. A complete set of genomes now costs 100,000-300,000 dollars or more, but the prices have also fallen with new technology discovered biotech firms.

A person's DNA is composed of a string of chemical units known by the letters A, C, G and T and the order in which they appear would determine inherited traits. The sequencing is aimed at determining that order. A complete set of DNA, or the human genome, consists of about 6 billion letters, counting both members of each pair of chromosomes.