Video: Next Generation DNA Sequencing

In 2000, sequencing of one human genome took over 10 years and cost more than a billion dollars. Today, the human genome can be sequenced in one day at a cost of $1,000 and more than a million human genomes are sequenced at scale each year, thanks to the technology co-invented by Professors Shankar Balasubramanian and David Klenerman. NGS is now being widely adopted in healthcare and diagnostics, such as cancer, rare diseases, infectious medicine, and sequencing-based non-invasive prenatal testing. The technology provides an effective way to study and identify new corona-virus strains and other pathogens. In addition to medical applications, NGS has also had a major impact on all of biology as it allows the clear identification of thousands of organisms in almost any kind of sample. This is now critically important for Agriculture, Ecology and Biodiversity studies. Professors Shankar Balasubramanian and David Klenerman were awarded the 2020 Millennium Technology Prize on 18 May 2021.