![Genomenon said today it has partnered with Rhythm Pharmaceuticals to create a database of genetic mutations associated with obesity as documented in published studies. Rhythm plans to use the data to better understand rare genetic disorders of obesity. [Visual Mozart/Getty Images]](https://www.insideprecisionmedicine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1628-218x150.jpeg "Metsera Launches with $290M to Develop Next Generation Weight Loss Products")
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When people talk about the $1,000 genome, they are not speaking about the whole genome, but the exons, the so-called coding regions of the genome. “Six years ago, I was spending $15,000 per exome sequence,” says Gholson Lyon, M.D., Ph.D., a genomic scientist working for the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. “Now that costs about $700.”
Whole genome sequencing is more expensive. “We are still not at the $1,000 genome in my opinion,” Dr. Lyon continues. “Almost everyone I’ve talked to is charging $1,500–2,000, and we pay $3,000 because that gets us 60× coverage of the genome, which we have shown is very important to recover small insertions and deletions in the genome ranging in size from 5 to 50 base pairs.”
Dr. Lyon, who studies rare but heritable medical diseases such as Ogden syndrome and TAF1 syndrome, believes that advances in next-generation sequencing technology—better software algorithms, improved methodologies, and lower costs—accelerate his work and the work of others conducting clinical research.
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