Pricebreaker: Your Genome Sequenced for Just a Few Thousand Dollars
One of the barriers to immortality has just come down. According to this article, Complete Genomics has put together the technology to sequence an individual’s genome at a fraction of previous prices. In fact they’re planning to offer genome sequencing for just $5000 within six months.
How did they do it? Easy. They harnessed the law of Accelerating Technology. They’re setting up a server farm to use thousands of computers to sequence genomes at a breathtaking pace. Once again, what just a few years ago was prohibitively expensive, if not impossible, will be available shortly for a small price.
How will this affect us? One big benefit will be that we will know which genetic problems we need to watch out for in our future. In addition, knowing an individual’s DNA will allow doctors to learn which drugs are best for us. This technology will completely revolutionize healthcare. The crude idea of one-size-fits-all treatment will disappear, and personalized drugs and therapy will be much more effective than most of the treatments that are available today.
But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Having our own DNA information available at any time will allow researchers to discover how our body works at a whole new level. It will allow a whole new dimension of technology applied to human beings. In fact, it’s a major step towards immortality.
How could this play out? Well, one thing that will probably happen is that once doctors have access to your genome data, they will be able to apply other technologies to create miracles. For example, there has been some success with artificial organs and organ transplants. But these operations are very dangerous, and recipients can wait years before suitable donor is found.
With an individual’s DNA and the right technology, a doctor can grow a heart, liver, kidney or any other organ that has failed. Since the organ has grown from our own DNA, there is no chance of rejection, which is a major danger with organ transplants. Changing out one of our organs would be a serious operation, but with practice and ever improving technology it will become safe and reliable.
So that means that many of the leading causes of death today will be eliminated. Changing out a liver or a kidney could become as safe and common as removing the appendix. Thanks to the constant march of Advancing Technology, our lives are set to improve at an ever accelerating rate.
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is one of my favorite financial books of all time. It's an allegory about a guy who has a terrible job, and how he overcomes challenges to achieve his dreams.
“With an individual’s DNA and the right technology, a doctor can grow a heart, liver, kidney or any other organ that has failed.”
The connection from cheaper sequencing to growing replacement organs from stem cells is quite indirect, the missing technologies are the ability to reliably and safely revert adult cells to stem cells, to direct those cells to grow into desired organs (not cancerous teratomas), and to construct scaffolds on which the organs can grow.
Cheap sequencing technologies will be handy for examining the epigenetics and transcriptome of different cell types, which should be handy for improving stem cell technology, but there’s no fundamental need to sequence the genome of an individual patient for whom organs are to be grown.
Hi Carl,
That’s a good point. Thank you for the clarification!
George