Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Ion Torrent claims to be first with $1K genome sequencer

By Lori Valigra

Ion Torrent Systems Inc. of Guilford, Conn., showed off its new DNA sequencing machine and chip that it claims can map a human genome in 24 hours for a cost of $1,000 at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco Tuesday, according a news release from parent company Life Technologies Corp.

The same day, Illumina Inc. of San Diego also announced a 24-day sequencer, but at a much higher initial machine price tag of $740,000. The price to sequence a genome was not disclosed.

Ion Torrent last summer wrote in a Nature paper that it had developed a DNA sequencing technique to target the $1,000 genome industry goal. At the time the paper was published, Ion Torrent CEO and founder Jonathan Rothberg, told Mass High Tech, “Sequencing on an ion semiconductor chip makes the $1,000 genome both inevitable and predictable. Extrapolating from our current progress we will break the $1,000 genome barrier in 2013.” The company appears to be ahead of schedule.

Rothberg added, “The development of ion semiconductor sequencing will have as profound an effect on sequencing as the introduction of CMOS imagers had on the development of digital photography, or the introduction of the microprocessor had on computing — it will make sequencing ubiquitous, fast and low cost.”

The Ion Proton Sequencer and a new chip, the Ion 318, created a buzz at the conference. The chips have begun shipping commercially and are expected to deliver up to 1 Gb of DNA sequencing data per run, 10 times more throughput than the current Ion 316 chip released six months ago, the company said.

Rothberg said the new genome-sequencing machine is 1,000 times more powerful than current technology. The machine can be used for both disease research and personalized health, with a price that will make the technology more accessible, according to the company. Current technology takes about a week to sequence a genome and costs $3,000 or more per genome.

Yale University is one of three institutions that will get the first Ion Proton Sequencers, along with Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and the Broad Institute in Cambridge, according to the news release. They are to receive the devices before the end of March. The device is about the size of a desktop printer and will be priced at $149,000. The chip and chemicals to process the genome will run $1,000, according to the company.

Rothberg said the new machine’s technology is similar to Ion Torrent’s Personal Genome Machine, which already is on the market and which was used last summer to trace the origin of an E. coli outbreak in Germany that killed 18 people.

The primary difference between Ion Torrent’s technology and competitors is that it uses arrays of semiconductors to directly measure, in real-time, the hydrogen ions produced during DNA replication. The product’s chips contain a high-density array of wells that can handle millions of reactors while reagents flow over a sensor array. The company said with semiconductors, sequencing can be done in a couple hours instead of two to eight weeks.

Ion Torrent was acquired in August 2010 for $375 million in cash and stock by Life Technologies, a Carlsbad, Calif. biotech tools company. The buyout could bring Ion Torrent another $350 million in cash and stock, based on milestone achievements.