Genomics has emerged as an important tool for studying biological systems. Significant cost reductions in genomic sequencing have accelerated the adaptation of this technology for applications in a variety of market segments (e.g., research, forensics, consumer products, agriculture, and diagnostics). The most important factor in reducing cost is increasing throughput per day. We predict that the cost of sequencing an entire genome will drop to a few hundred dollars in the next few years as throughput rises with increasing density, longer read length, and shorter cycle time.

In a year or so, the cost of genome sequencing will be less than the cost of single-gene testing, which by itself has already brought significant cost savings to health care. We also predict that genome sequencing will soon become a standard part of medical practice and that in the next 15 years everybody in the Western world will be genome-sequenced.

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