Wednesday, April 23, 2008

ZS Genetics joins chase for $10M X Prize

ZS Genetics Inc. has become the latest New England life sciences firm to enter the Archon X Prize for Genomics competition, which will award $10 million to the first group to sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days for less than $10,000, the company said.

The lowest cost of sequencing an entire genome today is around $100,000 and takes at least a day to complete.

ZS Genetics, based in North Reading, follows two previous contestants from New England into the competition: George Church, a renowned professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, and DNA sequencing firm 454 Life Sciences, of Branford, Conn.

The ability to sequence DNA at the speed called for in the competition would be a major step in personalized medicine, an emerging field focused on treating patients based on their individual genetic makeup, industry experts say.

Founded in 2003, ZS Genetics said it's developing a sequencing system that uses a modified transmission electron microscope and atomic labeling to render images of DNA and RNA molecules.

Marc Hodosh, a Boston-area entrepreneur, is senior director of the Archon X Prize contest. The contest's parent organization, the X Prize Foundation, based in Santa Monica, Calif., has launched separate competitions dedicated to space travel and automotive design.