Venter plans to sequence "between 40,000 and 100,000 genomes a year."

@cathcoste @5amsolutions Funny, I just wrote about Celera and the Human Genome project in January http://t.co/itQAcTi0V5
— Brave Bosom (@BraveBosom) March 17, 2014

"Craig Venter, the scientist who made a name for himself more than a decade ago by challenging the NIH-funded Human Genome Project, has a new venture. Last week he announced Human Longevity, Inc. The company, according to their press release, is “focused on extending the healthy, high performance human life span” and is going to “tackle the diseases associated with aging-related human biological decline”.

.@5amsolutions @HaririRobert Do we need a "BRCA Commons"? http://t.co/8s1BRdo5z4 TY, @BraveBosom! Would not like Big Pharma to own my genome
— CATHERINE COSTE (@cathcoste) March 17, 2014

"Given Venter’s background, it’s no surprise that genomics plays a big part in this effort. They plan to sequence between 40,000 and 100,000 genomes a year. To do that, they’ve purchased two of Illumina’s new high-end DNA sequencing devices, the HiSeq X Ten, which is advertised as able to sequence a complete human genome for the long-sought-after price of $1,000. (...) Illumina will make a lot of money from selling their machines and consumables, and will get some free ancillary marketing as well. (...) Human Longevity has stated that cancer is one of their areas of focus and the NIH is already engaged in sequencing thousands of cancer samples in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project. However, recent estimates have been, as outlined in a recent New York Times article, that 100,000 tumors will have to be sequenced to identify a majority of genes involved in cancer. Given that TCGA has only about ten percent of that number, it’s worth wondering whether the NIH will be willing to spend the money for such an effort, given that they’ve already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on it."

Will it be Marketable?

 

"(...) Unless the NIH is willing to drastically increase TCGA’s budget in these days of flat budgets, I’d say he [Venter]  has a good shot at cataloging a lot of new cancer mutations. What those mutations are worth commercially, and whether they will allow Human Longevity to be profitable, is the big question."

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