$1,000 genome project advances to NIH round two

GE Global Research just won a second round of funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to continue research that could slash the cost and time of sequencing an entire human genome to less than $1,000, in under a day. GE scientists made the Institute’s critically important funding round by inventing and demonstrating a unique approach to DNA sequencing, described in our video in August, which has the potential to significantly advance genetic research. With the new $1.3 million in funding, the team will now build a prototype DNA sequencer and demonstrate GE’s technology.

GE’s Dr. John Nelson, above, is a molecular biologist and principal investigator on the genome project. He has been conducting DNA related research since the mid-1980s and was part of GE’s research team that helped enable the original sequencing of the human genome in the late 1990s.

Cracking the code: GE’s Dr. John Nelson, above, is a molecular biologist and principal investigator on the genome project. He has been conducting DNA related research since the mid-1980s and was part of GE’s research team that helped enable the original sequencing of the human genome in the late 1990s. Today, he is part of Global Research’s Biosciences technology organization, which GE established five years ago and now has more than 70 scientists.

A genome is the collection of a person’s DNA and is the blueprint for the unique traits that define every individual. With current technology, the cost of sequencing a genome is now estimated to be approximately $50,000 and the time of sequencing can take several weeks. As opposed to studying a few genes at a time, genome sequencing allows researchers to take a more comprehensive and systematic approach that could yield far more insight into diagnosing, preventing and treating a given disease. Moreover, treatments could potentially be customized to each individual.

GE’s Dr. John Nelson, the lead scientist on the project, which is part of GE’s healthymagination initiative to drive new technologies that reduce healthcare costs while increasing access and improving quality, describes the work in the video below.

GE bio-scientists work to sequence human genomes for $1,000 each.

* Read GE’s announcement
* Read “More funds for GE work” in the Albany Times Union
* Read about the project on GE’s scientists’ blog
* Learn about the milestones reached in GE’s bioscience lab
* Read “Cost of Decoding a Genome Is Lowered” in the New York Times

Learn more about Global Research’s latest work in these GE Reports stories and videos:
* “A look in the lab with GE’s bioscience researchers”
* “Vital signs to go wireless with GE’s body sensors”
* “GE’s software helps Shanghai breathe easier”
* “GE unveils holographic disc breakthrough”
* “The GE Genius Series: Breakthroughs from butterflies”