Genotyping Costs Over Time

Question

[Ryan D]

I've seen figures on the cost per kb or cost per genome plotted over time, such as answered here, but I wondered if anyone had links to a figure that shows genotyping costs over time. Ideally it would be one that shows the implementation of different technology (Taqman, Sequenom, Affy 6.0, etc.) Anybody know where such figures or articles can be found?

Thanks, Rx

[Larry_Parnell]

I have some numbers on this in the office, including throughput per technician, going back to RFLP analysis. I'll add the info as an answer later.

Answer 1

[Khader Shameer]

Please take a look at this slide to note the rapid decline in genotyping cost from July 2005 - October 2006 in slide no. 8 (Continued progress in genotyping technology) of this presentation on Genome-Wide Association (GWA) Studies by Teri Manolio. You may find slide no. 7 (Continued progress in genotyping technology) also interesting, it provides Cost per genotype (Cents, USD) over number of SNPs over the period of 2001-2005. I don't have a slide with latest information, but I would love to see an updated version of the same.

[Ryan D]

Thanks, Khader. It is what I'm looking for, just more dated than I'd like.

Answer 2

[Larry_Parnell]

Well, I misremembered what info I had. I don't have cost, but output per technician per week.

In 1995, when we ran RFLPs, we could run about 120 assays/week[?] In 1999, with SnapShot, we ran about 450 assays/week[?] In 2002, with Taqman, we could do 4080 assays/week[?] In 2005, with high-throughput technologies, we were at about 15360 assays/week[?] With GWAS, we could do tens of millions of assays/week and this highly dependent upon the number of machines available.

Now, just to factor in cost of labor, materials, machine depreciation, etc...

[Ryan D]

Thanks Larry for reminding me about those other cost factors. I remember some great Illumina slides that showed how the labor ratio had flipped from 4 technicians to 1 bioinformatician to 1 technician and 4 bioinformaticians with the introduction of the Omni and new chips. Those items add up certainly.