Price of Whole Human Genome Sequencing Slashed 60 Percent

The human genome sequencing company Illumina has just announced that it is cutting its price to sequence a person's entire genetic makeup from $48,000 to $14,500. Apparently, the service is ordered through a physician, so that may avoid some of the interference from the FDA and Congress that direct-to-consumer genotype scanning companies are now experiencing.

At that rate of decline—and if the feds can resist meddling—genomes should be going for less than $1,000 in about three years.