454: Whole genomes at the benchtop

Despite dramatic improvements in the last decade, it still takes weeks or months to do the DNA sample preparation, amplification, sequencing and analysis required to complete an organism's genome. 454 Life Sciences, created out of the need by CuraGen Corp. to speed up sequencing, is building a system that miniaturizes and makes massively parallel each step in the process. The company believes its resulting product will take whole genome sequencing out of genome centers and make it a standard procedure at laboratories and in healthcare settings.

454 began as a CRGN project team that was given the task of producing a faster, more parallel sequencing technology. CRGN (New Haven, Conn.) saw that the technology had market potential, but "it was not CuraGen's forte to market a sequencing instrument, so they spun it out," according to 454's president and CEO, Richard Begley...