Faster DNA sequencing by feeding single DNA strands at a time thru nanopores.

BOSTON (5-19-10) -- Sequencing DNA could get a lot faster and cheaper – and thus closer to routine use in clinical diagnostics – thanks to a new method developed by a research team based at Boston University. The team has demonstrated the first use of solid state nanopores — tiny holes in silicon chips that detect DNA molecules as they pass through the pore — to read the identity of the four nucleotides that encode each DNA molecule. In addition, the researchers have shown the viability of a novel, more efficient method to detect single DNA molecules in nanopores.

"We have employed, for the first time, an optically-based method for DNA sequence readout combined with the nanopore system," said Boston University biomedical engineer Amit Meller, who collaborated with other researchers at Boston University, and at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. "This allows us to probe multiple pores simultaneously using a single fast digital camera. Thus our method can be scaled up vastly, allowing us to obtain unprecedented DNA sequencing throughput."

The cost of DNA sequencing has fallen by orders of magnitude and the cost hits new lows followed quickly by still more lows. Nanopore sequencers are going to send costs still lower. The $1000 genome is on the horizon as a stepping stone to the $500 genome. Smaller stuff costs less. This is the same pattern of advance that makes semiconductor computer chips so cheap.

But what to do with this sequencing capability? If you get yourself sequenced in 2010 the number of genetic variants that you have which have well understood effects are few and far between. Costs have fallen far enough that we now have to wait for scientists to use these lower costs (which they are) to figure out what all the differences mean. In a few years the argument for getting yourself sequenced will be stronger more due to better understanding of what all the genetic differences mean than due the further drops in costs.

Cheap genetic sequencing isn't just about knowing what foods are best suited for your metabolism or whether your prospective spouse is likely to cheat on you (though it will get used for those purposes). Accelerated human evolution is likely to be the biggest impact in the long term. Detailed knowledge of genes that influence intelligence, beauty, athletic performance, and other characteristics will be used in selecting embryos to implant when doing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Babies born from IVF 10 years from now will be smarter, better looking, healthier, and possessed of other advantages over the average baby born from old style sex.

The biggest way that cheap genome sequencing will lengthen our lives might turn out to be by sequencing cancer cells in order to figure out which mutations drive the development of cancer. Detailed knowledge of cancer-causing mutations will enable scientists to develop gene therapies and RNA interference drugs that turn cancer cells back to normal or that very selectively kill cancer cells. Cheap DNA sequencing therefore might save your life.