The math on sequencing's growing reach is pretty simple. In 2009, a few dozen genomes were sequenced. Last year the genes of some 1,700 people were sequenced. This year, analysts say the number will be 30,000. And the number is expected to grow, eventually encompassing millions. But sequencing outfits like Complete Genomics and Pacific Biosciences are concerned that the technology's reach is likely to exceed its ability to understand all that decoded DNA.
The big sequencing outfits tell MIT's Technology Review that there's no standard method for storing all that data, an incomplete though growing understanding of DNA, and a still emerging notion of how genes and disease are linked. In the end, that mountain of DNA may not mean all that much if researchers can't access it in a systematic fashion.
To avoid creating an indecipherable puzzle palace of jumbled data, companies like Complete Genomics want a consortium of gene companies to start hammering out industry standards on these points. Seattle-based Sage Bionetworks is pushing the argument as well. "This won't happen overnight," says Eric Schadt, the CSO at Pacific Biosciences and a co-founder of Sage. "But it will be huge, like the Internet."
Once properly archived, a standardized mother lode of DNA can become a powerful new tool in the hands of drug developers who want to discover new programs and study potential side effects. And there are indications that more discovery outfits are making the numbers work. "As the price has dropped, we are getting more interest from pharma and biotech companies," says Knome's Jorge Conde.
Of course, right now companies like Pacific Biosciences have bigger problems to deal with than a future overabundance of data. These bleeding-edge companies garnered huge amounts of investor cash based on the promise of that simple math: Falling prices will spur a steadily growing market. But PacBio has already been forced to lay off workers precisely because demand for its sequencing machines hasn't kept up with its own forecasts.
- here's the article from Technology Review