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January 17, 2005

Life, Reinvented

One of Endy's friends at MSI, Rob Carlson, charted the rates at which various biotechnologies were improving. The DNA-reading machines used by the Human Genome Project were doubling in efficiency every 18 months. DNA synthesis was accelerating even more quickly. If reality kept up with these "Carlson curves," then by 2010 a single lab worker would be able to synthesize a couple of human genomes from scratch every day. No more need for DNA bashing - just write out the sequence you want and synthesize it straightaway.

The Carlson curves also showed that the price of DNA synthesis was falling rapidly. That trend has only continued. In 2000, the cost of assembling sequences to order was roughly $10 to $12 per base pair. Today, it's down to $2. Some scientists foresee DNA synthesis dropping to 1 cent per base pair within a couple of years. That's a gene for 10 bucks, a bacterial genome for the price of a car.

Complete Article

Posted by thinkingmachine at January 17, 2005 07:50 PM

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