Ion Torrent’s chip-based genome sequencer is poised to revolutionize medicine

#1

Post by gourneau » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 7:13 PM UTC

Ion Torrent’s chip-based genome sequencer is poised to revolutionize medicine
beta.spectrum.ieee.org

Re: Ion Torrent’s chip-based genome sequencer is poised to revolutionize medicine

#2

Post by gourneau » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 7:40 PM UTC

I am developer at Ion Torrent. If you want to help hack the future of medicine, I am looking for Python and Django hackers to join my team in San Francisco. We are a totally open source shop.

We also need awesome electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, signal processing engineers, CUDA hackers, FPGA developers, statisticians (we use R too), bioinformatics folks, JavaScripters, UI people, distributed systems engineers, documentation and developer evangelists, DevOps and SREs, and testers. Not to mention all the wet lab bio stuff.

email me at josh@gourneau.com if you are interested

Re: Ion Torrent’s chip-based genome sequencer is poised to revolutionize medicine

#3

Post by thirdstation » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 7:43 PM UTC

The non-beta-site version of the article is here: http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/the-gene-machine...

Re: Ion Torrent’s chip-based genome sequencer is poised to revolutionize medicine

#4

Post by steve19 » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 7:49 PM UTC

gourneau wrote: post #2

I am developer at Ion Torrent. If you want to help hack the future of medicine, I am looking for Python and Django hackers to join my team in San Francisco. We are a totally open source shop. We also need awesome electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, signal processing engineers, CUDA hackers, FPGA developers, statisticians (we use R too), bioinformatics folks, JavaScripters, UI people, distributed systems engin…

Hi Ion Torrent dev. This is a really exciting project.

The article says "decipher a human genome in a few hours, and at the bargain-basement price of $1000".

Does this mean the hardware will cost $1000, or does a complete sequence cost $1000 of consumables/depreciation?

Re: Ion Torrent’s chip-based genome sequencer is poised to revolutionize medicine

#5

Post by hxrts » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 7:51 PM UTC

One point worth mentioning. Ion Torrent is one of several companies that develops high-throughput or 'nextgen' sequencing platforms 454 and Illumina being the other big players right now. Each technology has a few important nuances that make them better or worse for a particular project. Some of the major things one looks at are cost of the device and library construction, error rates due to PCR amplification steps or nucleotide calling, library sizes, and maximum read length but there are many more. In addition, pore technologies will definitely become important in the near future because they enable single molecule experiments which are currently impossible without amplification using the above platforms.

Re: Ion Torrent’s chip-based genome sequencer is poised to revolutionize medicine

#6

Post by caycep » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 7:59 PM UTC

Problem is there is still the "genome-clinic" gap.

Re: Ion Torrent’s chip-based genome sequencer is poised to revolutionize medicine

#7

Post by patdennis » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 8:10 PM UTC

For $50, I had 23andme read my genotype for a pretty significant number of already studied genes, but far from my complete genome.

How much of a difference does it make to the end user whether their complete genome is sequenced, compared to 23andme's model?

Re: Ion Torrent’s chip-based genome sequencer is poised to revolutionize medicine

#8

Post by tocomment » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 8:12 PM UTC

gourneau wrote: post #2

I am developer at Ion Torrent. If you want to help hack the future of medicine, I am looking for Python and Django hackers to join my team in San Francisco. We are a totally open source shop. We also need awesome electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, signal processing engineers, CUDA hackers, FPGA developers, statisticians (we use R too), bioinformatics folks, JavaScripters, UI people, distributed systems engin…

So how does Django relate to gene sequencing?

Re: Ion Torrent’s chip-based genome sequencer is poised to revolutionize medicine

#9

Post by gourneau » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 8:13 PM UTC

steve19 wrote: post #4

gourneau wrote: post #2

I am developer at Ion Torrent. If you want to help hack the future of medicine, I am looking for Python and Django hackers to join my team in San Francisco. We are a totally open source shop. We also need awesome electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, signal processing engineers, CUDA hackers, FPGA developers, statisticians (we use R too), bioinformatics folks, JavaScripters, UI people, distributed systems engin…

Hi Ion Torrent dev. This is a really exciting project. The article says "decipher a human genome in a few hours, and at the bargain-basement price of $1000". Does this mean the hardware will cost $1000, or does a complete sequence cost $1000 of consumables/depreciation?

That means the cost of consumables is $1000.

Re: Ion Torrent’s chip-based genome sequencer is poised to revolutionize medicine

#10

Post by waiquoo » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 8:16 PM UTC

gourneau wrote: post #2

I am developer at Ion Torrent. If you want to help hack the future of medicine, I am looking for Python and Django hackers to join my team in San Francisco. We are a totally open source shop. We also need awesome electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, signal processing engineers, CUDA hackers, FPGA developers, statisticians (we use R too), bioinformatics folks, JavaScripters, UI people, distributed systems engin…

Hi gourneau, I'm a grad student working on the hardware side of nanopore sequencing. Do you know anything about opportunities in nanofabrication/system design? Or does Dr. Rothberg come up with these things all on his own?