I see that the $1000 genome is now an official US government project. NIH's genome institute (NHGRI) just announced this genetic equivalent of going to the moon. The agency is spending $32 million to develop technology aimed explicitly at sequencing genomes of individual patients for $1000, long an informal goal among genome scientists. NHGRI's announcement comes on the heels of (and was perhaps provoked by?) papers describing two new sequencing methods that would bring the cost of the Human Genome Project down to a million or two. (The original cost nearly $3 billion. Yes, that's a "b".)NHGRI's goal is medical because that's what NIH does. This futuristic vision is about desktop sequencing in a doc's office that will tell you whether you're at risk for heart disease or cancer. But of course that's not the only potential application. Look for more sequencing in the criminal justice system. I like cheap...

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