Illumina wants to sequence your whole genome for $100

The first sequencing of the whole human genome in 2003 cost roughly $2.7 billion, but DNA sequencing giant Illumina has now unveiled a machine that the company says is “expected one day” to order up your whole genome for less than $100. CEO Frank deSouza showed off the machine, called the NovaSeq.
He told the crowd the machine’s scanning speed could decipher an entire human genome in less than an hour.
But the price for genome sequencing has been in continuous free fall since the beginning. In 2006, Illumina’s first machine could sequence a human genome for $300,000, and just last year the company announced it could do the same thing for $1,000.
The rapid reduction in costs have already helped in clinical research, but even greater speed and a lowered price point will likely be enticing to health startups with a focus on the consumer. While plenty of clinics and researchers have been able to access genetic data in cancer research and other diseases, consumer interest in genetic research has also piqued thanks to tests from startups such as 23andMe and AncestryDNA.
And celebrities such as Angelina Jolie have helped spur interest in women to get genomic screenings for breast cancer, such as BRCA-1 and BRCA-2, like Color Genomics provides.
The San Diego-based Illumina plays a huge back-end role in many of these direct-to-consumer tests. If you’ve ever had your DNA sequenced by 23andMe, or one of the many other services, it’s highly likely it was done on one of Illumina’s machines.
Many of these testing services already cost a couple hundred dollars and the lowered cost and higher speed could not only give them a larger margin in profits but the ability to process faster and possibly bring in a higher load of customers.
Illumina’s new machine is meant to be a lower-priced device and comes in two models, NovaSeq 5000 for $850,000 and the NovaSeq 6000 for $985,000.
Shares of Illumina went up by 16 percent after the announcement.