Single molecule sequencing

Ten years ago, US president Bill Clinton and UK prime minister Tony Blair announced the draft version of 'the' human genome as a major scientific revolution. In many ways, however, it was a big-budget application of old established technology. The genomics expert and Nobel laureate Sir John Sulston compared it to a moon shot, which may have been both a warning not to expect immediate benefits, and a reflection on the primitive technology used to reach a highly visible goal. 

The real revolution has only started to happen. Technology has developed at an immense rate, and costs have fallen dramatically. A recent milestone was the first publication of the personal human genome of Stanford academic Stephen Quake by single molecule technology.