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Sequencing the human genome may soon be much faster and cheaper, thanks
to a $6.8 million joint research programme by the US government’s Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory and Perkin-Elmer, the world’s largest manufacturer
of automated sequencers.

Even using the best technology available today, sequencing all 3 billion
DNA base pairs in the human genome promises to take decades and cost billions
of dollars, says Tony Carrano, director of the Human Genome Center at Lawrence
Livermore – one of several centres engaged in large-scale sequencing. The
new programme aims to increase sequencing speed a hundredfold within a
few years, at perhaps one-twentieth of the cost per base pair.

The collaborators see few conceptual hurdles to this aim. ‘We know
the individual components work. Putting the system together is the only
obstacle,’ says Carrano.