May 31, 2014

When are we going to get a 3rd generation sequencer?

Two years ago, there were at least a dozen companies trying to develop DNA sequencing technology to rival incumbents like Illumina, Life Technologies, Roche/454, PacBio, and Complete Genomics (the latter offers sequencing as a service). What has changed since?

Despite numerous optimistic announcements by start-ups (for example, here and here and here and here and here) and investments totaling more than $400 million, there hasn't yet been any great breakthrough. The only exception is Oxford Nanopore, whose MinION sequencers seems to be close to ready for prime time.

The table below lists companies that have said they are developing sequencing technology and that have received funding according to the online database Crunchbase, which tracks that sort of thing:

Company
Funding
Status
$211.7m
Active
$58.8m
Active
$45.5m
Active
$35.0m
Active
$22.5m
Active
$20.9m
Active
$10.4m
Acquired by Roche
$5.0m
Active
$2.4m
Active
$1.5m
Active
Total
$413.7m


Even though that's a long list, it is not complete. Companies whose funding situation or current status are unclear and who have therefore not made it onto the list are Noblegen, Base 4 Innovation , Electron Optica, the Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG), Electronic Biosciences, Qiagen's Intelligent Bio-systems, Reveo, and MobiousBiosytems. Doubtlessly, some of those have quietly exited the race.

Let's summarise: There are a lot of companies trying to develop the sequencer of the future, and at least some of them have received generous funding. Most have been active for at least two years, but we haven't seen any results yet, at least in the form of a sequencing machine we can buy. Clearly, 3rd generation sequencing is a though nut to crack.

I'd like to thank Keith Robison for pointing out omissions in an earlier version of this post, which I've now fixed.