In the near future, it might only cost $1000 to sequence your entire genome. Three years ago, the first human genome decoding cost a total of $500 million. Now, it might cost $10-$15 million. The New York Times reports on several companies vying to drive the cost down to less than a grand, possibly ushering in an age where "genetic report cards" may be available at birth. From the new York Times:
David Bentley, Solexa's chief scientist, said that the company's DNA sequencing machine had already decoded several bacterial genomes and that he was planning to sequence a human genome – that of an anonymous man from the Yoruba people of Nigeria. An African genome was chosen because there is greater genetic diversity in African populations, Dr. Bentley said.
The demand for whole genome sequencing is a long way off, in Dr. Bentley's view, but not so distant that it is too early to think about the consequences of generating such information. He advocates that two people should control access to a person's genome sequence – the patient and the physician.
Why not the patient alone? Dr. Bentley said genomes would be so difficult to analyze correctly that interpretation should stay within the medical profession. Otherwise, freelance services will spring up, offering to predict whether a person will get heart disease or their age of death. This potential for misinformation "would have a huge adverse impact on the medical use of genetic information," Dr. Bentley said.
