Due to the enormous cost and technology involved, less than a dozen people have had their DNA fully decoded, or “sequenced”, to date.
But IBM has come up with a method that could make this affordable for everyone – DNA sequencing could be more than a million times cheaper using chips with holes just three billionths of a metre wide, it says.
The first sequencing done by the Human Genome Project cost $3bn. IBM says its project, if successful, could reduce the cost of personalised genome analysis to $100 to $1,000.
IBM scientists have been drilling the tiniest of holes, known as nanopores, in computer-like chips to achieve this, then passing DNA strands through them one “base” at a time in order to read the information.
The key is controlling the speed at which the DNA flows through the nanopore so it can be read properly by a sensor. IBM scientists say they have proved that turning on and off gate voltages on their chips can move DNA through the nanopores at a rate slow enough to make it readable.
“The technologies that make reading DNA fast, cheap and widely available have the potential to revolutionise bio-medical research and herald an era of personalised medicine,” said Gustavo Stolovitzky, IBM research scientist.
“Ultimately, it could improve the quality of medical care by identifying patients who will gain the greatest benefit from a particular medicine and those who are most at risk of adverse reaction.”
The IBM claim is a big advance on that of Helicos Biosciences, which in August announced it had built a machine that would reduce the cost of sequencing from $250,000 to around $50,000.
