Genomic sequencing to become more affordable in Australia

The Garvan Institute of Medical Research (St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia) says it is one of the first in the world to acquire technology capable of sequencing genomes for that price, making it possible to do around 350 genomes a week or 18,000 a year – a “massive increase” on what is currently being done in Australia. The Garvan’s new Illumina machines will sequence about six billion base pairs in a person’s DNA – the complete set of genetic information we inherit from our parents.Thousands of Australians are set to benefit from the acquisition of new machines that can sequence a whole human genome for about $1000.