The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has granted $19 million to develop technologies to dramatically reduce the cost of DNA sequencing.

During the past decade, DNA sequencing costs have fallen dramatically, fueled by tools, technologies and process improvements developed by genomics researchers.

In 2004, NHGRI launched the Advanced DNA Sequencing Technology Program to accelerate improvements in DNA sequencing technologies. By 2009, the programme had surpassed its initial goal of producing high-quality genome sequences of roughly six billion base pairs — the amount of DNA found in humans and other mammals that receive roughly three billion base pairs from each of their parents — for $100,000 each. Today, the cost of sequencing a human genome using these next-generation DNA sequencing technologies has dipped to just under $8,000.

Price is one hurdle in the way of widespread use of genomics in research and clinical care. Speed and accuracy are among other factors. The grants will attempt to address all of these challenges.

"We can now access data we could not dream of getting in 2004 when we started this programme — tens of thousands of human genome sequences have been generated," said Eric D Green, MD, PhD, NHGRI director. "And yet, the information we would truly like to get for understanding disease and, eventually, for treating patients, requires much better quality sequence data. That is the direction we would like to go with these grants."

The use of nanoscale devices for sequencing, reflected in many of these projects, is accelerating. These nanoscale devices function on a very small scale is an understatement. A human hair is 100,000 nanometers in diameter and a single strand of DNA is 2 nanometers in diameter.

"Several of the investigative teams will explore novel nanoscale sensing modes and approaches for manipulating DNA molecules with great precision by using nanoscale structures," noted Jeffery A Schloss, programme director for NHGRI’s Advanced DNA Sequencing Technology Programme.

NHGRI is one of the 27 institutes and centers at NIH. The NHGRI Division of Extramural Research supports grants for research and training and career development at sites nationwide.