MELBOURNE: By the 1 billion and 13 years it took to order one individual genome in 2000, that they brought down the cost for less than $1,000 now.
Chemists Sir Shankar Balasubramanian (in film ) and Sir David Klenerman in Cambridge University were given the bi-annual Millennium Technology Prize on May 18 to their support to humanity throughout the pandemic.
It’s the world’s biggest tech trophy, sooner given to the likes of Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web.
Chennai-born Balasubramanian and Klenerman began creating the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) at 2006.
On January 10 final year, NGS has been utilized to map the SARS-CoV-2 genome in Fudan University in Shanghai.
Only 25 days , Moderna developed its own vaccine, helped by this technology.
“NGS assisted in the pandemic as it can map a great number of germs and people could observe the way that it’s mutating,” explained Klenerman.
The duo believes that NGS remains in its infancy, since after technologies is democratised,”users get creative”.
“We’re just scratching the face of what’s potential,” Chennai-born Balasubramanian told TOI.
Balasubramanian explained,”(We watch ) vaccines provide powerful defense against the newest version B.
1.
617.
It’s preliminary but important details.
This implies every nation on the planet should keep pushing its own vaccination programme as a result, up to now, it appears to be quite powerful.
” The roots of NGS return almost 25 years after both were working as independent investigators.
“We weren’t attempting to order anything or create technologies but how we had been approaching the issue led us into watching a brand new approach to accommodate DNA,” Balasubramanian said.
NGS sets up countless fragments of DNA in the sample to the face of a processor within a variety.
They are subsequently amplified.
Every fragment is decoded on that processor utilizing fluorescent colored nucleotides (building blocks of DNA and RNA).
Even the colour-coded nucleotides are found over and above, mapping the DNA sequence of every fragment.
Since this can be done with numerous fragments in exactly the identical time, it’s quick, affordable and scalable.
Back in 1998, Balasubramanian and Klenerman based Solexa and assembled a group to choose what they’d discovered and create the tech viable.
In 2006, Solexa did just that.
The year later, Illumina gained Solexa and finetuned the tech.
On January 10 final year, NGS has been utilized to map the SARS-CoV-2 genome in Fudan University in Shanghai.
Only 25 days , Moderna developed its own vaccine, helped by this technology.
“NGS assisted in the pandemic as it can map a great number of germs and people could observe the way that it’s mutating,” explained Klenerman.
Balasubramanian explained,”(We watch ) vaccines provide powerful defense against the newest version B.
1.
617.
It’s preliminary but important details.
This implies every nation on the planet should keep pushing its own vaccination programme as a result, up to now, it appears to be quite powerful.
” And it is not only Covid-19.
NGS is also producing discoveries in cancer and rare diseases.
“Sequencing the genome of a tumour offers information unique to this tumour in that person,” explained Balasubramanian.
“Then, sadly, some kids are born with uncommon diseases that are hard to diagnose and cure.
We could order the genes of parents and kids to discover the differences.
1 particular gene could have gone wrong and discovering that results in identification and treatment,” explained Klenerman.