A vision for ubiquitous sequencing

Abstract

Genomics has recently celebrated reaching the $1000 genome milestone, making affordable DNA sequencing a reality. With this goal successfully completed, the next goal of the sequencing revolution can be sequencing sensors--miniaturized sequencing devices that are manufactured for real-time applications and deployed in large quantities at low costs. The first part of this manuscript envisions applications that will benefit from moving the sequencers to the samples in a range of domains. In the second part, the manuscript outlines the critical barriers that need to be addressed in order to reach the goal of ubiquitous sequencing sensors.

Figure 1.

Sizes of sequencing platforms vs. sequencing sensors. For other differences, see Table 1. (A) Three men haul an 860-kg Pacific Biosciences RSII, a sequencing platform, to the University of Exeter (photo courtesy of @PsyEpigenetics). (B) MinION sequencing sensor. (C) An early prototype of a Genapsys flowcell. The company develops an iPad-size sequencer. (D) A commodity digital camera chip ready for cell phone integration. Can DNA sequencers be that small?