Purpose: An open forum on key challenges to ultra-low-cost DNA sequencing technology.
Potential participants: Scientists and engineers who are expert in fields such as biochemistry, molecular biology, biophysics, analytical chemistry, physics, single-molecule studies, micro- and nanotechnology, materials, image processing, fast/ sensitive electronics, and many others.
Why participate: Participants will learn about current research on genome sequencing technologies and about NHGRI’s program, and will develop a better understanding of how their knowledge and experience can contribute to achieving the technology goals. They will contribute insights on solving key challenges.
Presentation opportunities: Participants are encouraged to submit poster abstracts. A subset of abstracts will be selected for platform presentation.
In 2004, NHGRI initiated a program of grants to support the development of technologies to slash the cost of DNA sequencing. At that time, the cost to produce a very high quality draft of the entire human genome was about $10 million. The program goals were to reduce that cost by 2 orders of magnitude in five years and by 4 orders of magnitude in ten years. Ultra-low-cost sequencing technology would certainly be applied for many other uses, but the immediate motivation was human genome sequencing for medical benefit. An integral and highly effective component of this program has been an annual grantee meeting, where the latest data and concepts are openly shared to accelerate progress in the field.
This year we invite other members of the research community to join with the grantees for a day of presentations and discussions on the critical scientific and engineering challenges that stand in the way of technology to enable full human genome sequencing for $1,000. Enormous progress has been made toward achieving the 5-year goal – human genome sequencing for $100,000 – but the nature of the data produced by current technologies presents substantial impediments. And in spite of outstanding scientific progress toward the 10-year goal – the $1,000 genome – technical success is not assured because of challenges in diverse fields of study.
This meeting will bring NHGRI Advanced Sequencing Technology Program grantees together with other scientists and engineers who may be studying similar challenges, or who are not currently doing so, but may have insights that may help to achieve the goal of sequencing human genomes for about $1,000. A "Feature" section in the October 2008 issue of Nature Biotechnology provides background on many of the key issues.
Registration (deadline is March 9, 2009) & abstract submission available at: http://www.capconcorp.com/meeting/STDGM/default.asp
