The cost of DNA sequencing is going down rapidly making mapping the genome within the next decade almost as inexpensive as a routine blood workup. Current DNA sequencing tests cost, at their cheapest, about $5,000. Ion Torrent, a company founded by Jonathan Rothberg, a chemical engineer, has technology almost go-to-market ready that will drop the cost to $1,000 and provide a complete sequenced genome in 2 hours.
In the March 2012 issue of Popular Science, in the article, “The Next Sequence,” Jennifer Abbasi describes work being done at IBM to develop a $100 sequencer, a chip that uses nanotechnology to read DNA. At $100 a test, DNA sequencing will be open to millions of patients.
Of course sequencing an individual’s DNA is not in itself a method for curing disease. It is sequencing of a group of patients with a common disease that can lead to finding the “smoking…
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Unfortunately “biomedicine” generally entails some form of research on animals, either directly or indirectly. Subjecting animals to uses that mean suffering and death for them is inhumane, regardless of the possible “benefit” to humans.
When animals are being harmed, it would be good to take note of that fact, rather than leaving it unmentioned.
Thank you.
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