17
Sensor100 June 2014
Company News
DNA ChipWill Plug Into Handsets
After claiming in March it brought the cost of sequencing a human
genome to $1,000,
Illumina Inc.
has set its sights on a consumer
product.The company aims to deliver a chip that plugs into a smart-
phone, bringing genetic medicine to the individual. The smartphone
will become “a molecular stethoscope,” said
Mostafa Ronaghi
, Il-
lumina’s chief technology officer, speaking at the
.
“We will not need a primary doctor in the future, you will get tested
[at home or in a clinic] and go directly to a specialist -- I believe it will
happen in five to seven years,” Ronaghi predicted. “Although it’s still
early days for genomics, costs and lives are being saved applying the
technology to cancer treatments and pregnancy care. Today about
$12 billion of the estimated $20 genomics industry is in oncology,
The next biggest slice is $5 billion in systems for researchers, fol-
lowed by a rapidly growing $2 billion segment in reproductive health
and $1 billion in other emerging applications.”
