Introduction to Digital Sequencing
The project Massive Digital Sequencing by Binary DNA, abbreviated Digital Sequencing, is funded by EC under FP7 and started on December 1 2009.
The overall objective of this SME-driven proposal is to become the first industrial environment to develop a DNA sequencing instrument that meets the price-performance parameters required to make DNA analysis at the nucleotide level part of everyday work life. This objective will be met by the development of a 3rd generation DNA sequencing instrument – the ‘Digital Sequencer’ - that will sequence DNA by utilising technologies developed for optical disk industry which can be found in any regular DVD or PC. This technology has the added potential of promoting the European Community as one of the leading regions with respect to scientific communities, both academic and industrial.
A successful launch of a high-throughput low-cost DNA sequencing instrument will represent a major catalytic event within many scientific industries, i.e. an explosive growth is foreseen both in terms of 1) number of users and 2) level of use. Hence, the first company to introduce such an instrument will be faced with unparalleled competitive advantages and enormous market potentials arising from industries like health care, drug development, agriculture and aquaculture, and environmental biotechnology.
The current end user market for DNA analysis consists primarily of scientists performing research for drug development companies. However, there are smaller numbers of users within the fields of diagnostics, public research, health care, agriculture, forensic medicine etc. The market is therefore expected to expand once the cost of DNA sequencing is driven down to more affordable levels.
The proposed 3rd generation DNA sequencing instrument – Digital Sequencer - will be beyond the state-of-the-art. This will introduce new possibilities to carry out personalized medicine on the whole-genome scale using low-cost instrumentation which allows broad dissemination and exploitation of the technology. It should be emphasized that the main goal with this project is to develop high-throughput sequencing instruments that can be mass-produced.
Digital Sequencing has grant agreement number 222913.
Contact information
For more information, please contact the Digital Sequencing project coordinator:
Dr. Preben Lexow
LingVitae Holding AS, Norway
