the Plummeting Cost of DNA Sequencing

Hi "Gattaca"; welcome to 2011.

The graph below represents the plummeting cost of DNA sequencing from mid 2001. The vertical axis is based on a logarithmic scale, meaning the first of the five vertical sections represents 1 million, while the second represents 10 times that amount, rather than 2 million.

Moore's Law expresses the long-term history of computing hardware, and the fact that the amount of transistors that can be cheaply placed on a circuit has DOUBLED every two years consistently for the past 50 years, and is expected to do so until at least 2015. For more information please consult Moore's Law Wikipedia page.


Since January 2008, our ability to generate DNA sequencing data is growing faster than our ability to store and analyse it.



(Expressed as US dollars per million DNA Bases)

(via WiredScience)

Also check out Discover's coverage of the plummeting costs of DNA sequencing.