Boston University Researchers Receive Grant to Refine DNA Sequencing Method

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $4.1 million grant to a research group from the Boston University’s biomedical engineering department. The NIH granted the award to fine-tune the low-cost DNA sequencing method that might lead to independent genome sequencing for a meagerly cost of less than $1,000.

The project has been in development for the past four years, on a $2.2 million grant awarded by NIH. The project is led by Amit Meller, a biomedical engineering professor at the University. The project is one of the ten to obtain funding this year from the NIH National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), under the Revolutionary Sequencing Technology Development, a $1,000 Genome program.

The genome program has created innovations that have decreased the genome sequencing cost from an enormous $10 million to $20,000. The program has also reduced the time required for completing the process from several months to one week. However, attaining the $1,000 mark requires highly creative procedures.

Amit Meller and his group have demonstrated the use of solid state nanopores towards the end of the fourth year. The nanopores are 4 nm wide holes made in silicon chips that read DNA strands when they pass through, for optically sequencing the four nucleotides. The nucleotides encode every DNA module. This optical-based method can decrease the DNA sequencing cost, and reduce the time needed for sequencing a complete human genome.

Integrating the optical detection potential with the capability to evaluate very long DNA molecules with high-sensitivity, the nanopores are positioned to compete with the existing DNA sequencing methods for accuracy, speed, and cost. Meller and his team, in last February, founded NobleGen Biosciences to commercialize the nanopore sequencing using the new method.