A genomic revolution is currently underway that will have transformative influence on almost all aspects of our lives. It will impact us in ways that we cannot yet fully conceive, much like the changes brought about by other exponential technologies in the past viz. integrated circuits, personal computer and the internet that were apparent only decades later. While the cost of sequencing the whole genome is now close to a thousand dollars, it is not low enough to disrupt the delivery side of the present healthcare model. The cost of sequencing still needs to come down by another order of magnitude to about $100 per genome. A fast, accurate, low cost sequencer will have exponential impact on genome wide association studies (GWAS), transcriptomics, proteomics and translational medicine. Other than healthcare, it will also have disruptive impact on food production, synthetic biology and alternate energy.
Healthcare: Genomic profiling is revolutionizing cancer, disease therapy by empowering the physician and enabling precision medicine. The standard of care is rapidly shifting to individualized medicine based on genetic profile of disease in a patient. However, very few tumor profiling tests are currently covered by insurance providers, because the costs of complex panels can be as high as $25,000. A $100 high-accuracy sequencer can reduce the costs of these deep profiling tests to just a few thousand dollars, which can be readily covered by insurance providers. These advances in personalized medicine will alleviate challenges in disease therapy, improving patient health outcomes and quality of life. Direct cost of cancer to US economy is approaching $150 billion, in addition to an equal amount in loss-of-productivity costs. Reducing cancer incidence by 20% by 2025 using genomic tools can save US economy over $30 billion a year in just oncology. Cumulative savings in all disease areas including infectious diseases, cardiovascular, CNS, autoimmune, etc could run above hundred billion dollars per year, positively impacting fiscal deficits and national debt. We believe that advanced diagnostics based on genotype & phenotype characterization, genomic medicine and gene therapy are going to transform all areas of healthcare, propelling us towards an almost disease-free society in about 25 years where 75% of current diseases can be diagnosed early and simply preempted.
Food Production: Low cost sequencing is propelling plant genomics research, giving a significant boost to plant breeding efforts in three ways. Firstly, it has enabled unraveling of plant genomes on a large scale for the first time, thus aiding genotype phenotype correlations at a scale not possible previously. This aids in identification of useful target traits in plant populations against their genomic markers. Secondly, by analyzing the genotype of seedlings it becomes possible to predict their respective phenotypes, obviating the need to perform actual phenotype characterization in field trials which might take many years. This dramatically reduces the selection times of elite plant lines from years to just a few weeks, increasing the feasibility and scope of combinatorial experimentation to include a larger set of germlines, including hundreds of wild unadapted germlines lying in storage in seed repositories worldwide. Thirdly, genomics assisted breeding and plant gene therapy enable programmed selection of traits from a wider group of parent genotypes, to design and develop more complex seed varieties. Designer traits could include improved taste, increased nutrition, higher crop yields, better pest resistance, drought tolerance, suitability to local soil and weather conditions etc. Genomics assisted breeding combined with precision agriculture, which uses sensors and other advanced methods for real-time large-area phenotype characterization, is set to revolutionize agriculture. These approaches adapted to animal husbandry are increasing productivity of livestock breeding. Further progress will improve crop yields multi-folds without increase in cultivable land, aiding sustainability and climate change, and potentially solving the challenge of hunger worldwide.
Bioenergy & Sustainability: Genomic design and engineering is set to make a significant impact on alternate energy production and environmental sustainability, with a large number of projects already underway. A significant area of research is engineering photosynthetic microorganisms to capture sun light and convert its energy into biofuels, other useful chemicals. Photoautotrophs such as algae and cyanobacteria further aid sustainability by consuming carbon dioxide from atmosphere, and are currently in active commercialization. Microorganisms are being programmed using genomic tools to repurpose them for specific applications, such as converting abundantly available feedstock into sugars and biofuels in an energy efficient manner; breaking down of environmental pollutants like oil spills, toxic chemicals, carcinogens and for waste water management; designer microorganisms that can produce materials such as biodegrade plastics, drug molecules which cannot otherwise be produced in a scalable and energy effective fashion using conventional approaches. While significant progress has been made in these areas, the field of genomic engineering is still in its infancy, and once fully developed has the potential to solve most of the current challenges in environmental sustainability.
