Re:$200 retail whole genome sequencing now available
by new299 on Friday November 23, 2018 @04:54AM
(#18515489)
Given the error rates shown for this product it seems unlikely this is anything but BGI sequencing.
The BGI (MGI) have been pushing out new instruments, reportedly with lower error rates (and much cheaper than Illumina).
They’ve also been building out service centers outside China, and I suspect this is where the sequencing being done by this service is located.
Universities do sometimes offer sequencing as a service, but I suspect not at as low a price point as the BGI, even for those universities with attached genome centers.
Re:$200 retail whole genome sequencing now available
by rfc on Friday November 23, 2018 @12:10PM
(#18517625)
Good catch on the error rates. Didn't see that.
We go up against universities all the time in our competitive deals. They're generally always cheaper since everything is subsidized however the turnaround times are usually significant and the quality is not entirely repeatable. The cost here looks heavily subsidized just as a way to spark interest.
Also, in their About Us section they have every technology listed under the sun (Illumina, PacBio, Thermo, BGI) so I think it's just whatever they can get their hands on based on which labs have open runs. Seems quite questionable from a data integrity perspective if you're trying to do population based genetics. The quality between sequencers varies dramatically.