
The first complete sequence of the human genome was completed in 2003, taking 13 years and $3-billion. By 2007, the cost had dropped to about $10-million. Then, in 2007, the development of a revolutionary new technology (called “Next-Generation Sequencing, NGS) sent the cost plummeting. By 2009 the cost was down to $100,000, and there is every reason to expect that within the year, you can sequence your entire genetic code for $1000. And it will continue to get even cheaper.
The line for Moore’s law on the graph reflects the cost of computer chips, which drops by half about every two years. Note that the axes of the graph are a log scale, so the slope of Moore’s law is actually exponential. The cost of computing power is declining at an astonishing rate – and since 2007, the cost of gene sequencing has been going down even faster.