Soon, It Will Cost Less To Sequence A Genome Than To Flush A Toilet — And That Will Change Medicine

Soon, It Will Cost Less To Sequence A Genome Than To Flush A Toilet — And That Will Change Medicine Forever

by Ajai Raj at Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/super-cheap-genome-sequencing-by-2020-2014-10

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We don't traditionally think of flushing the toilet as an action that costs money. But actually the cost of a flush comes in at about 1 cent. Imagine if sequencing a genome was that easy and cheap? Soon, that could be a reality, according to a leading genome researcher. He predicts we will be sequencing genomes for pennies as soon as 2020.

And when genomes are that cheap to come by, the information they provide will completely revolutionize medicine as we know it.

You'll be able to monitor your health, discover diseases like cancer before they became obvious, and profile your microbiome — all the microorganisms that call your body home. That will allow you to catch potential health problems much earlier than is possible right now and even before symptoms show.

"And I always like to say, also, whenever we flush one of those toilets, we're going to go ahead and analyze everything in there, there'll be a little genome sequencer sitting there," Raymond McAuley predicted in a lecture at Singularity University's Exponential Finance conference in June. And he should know: he's the Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Chair at Singularity University and an advisor to a number of biotechnology companies.



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