Personal genomics company Nebula Genomics announced a new product at an unmatched price: 30x whole-genome sequencing for $299 in the direct-to-consumer market segment. With this launch, Nebula Genomics also expands its services to 188 countries.
Whole-genome sequencing at 30x coverage accurately reads out over 6 billion letters in the human genome. This generates a thousand-fold more information, enabling more comprehensive reporting on traits and ancestry. However, until now, the cost of whole-genome sequencing made it inaccessible to most people. To bring the cost down, Nebula Genomics has partnered with global genomics leader BGI Group, leveraging its MGI DNBSEQ T-Series high throughput sequencing technology and its global network of sequencing centers. As a result, Nebula Genomics is able to offer whole-genome sequencing with a more than a two-fold price reduction.
“For the past 30 years, we’ve been working towards making personal whole genome sequencing affordable and accurate,” George Church, professor at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Nebula Genomics, said in a statement. “Today, we have a big step towards this goal, reducing the cost of 30x Whole-Genome Sequencing to less than $300 and making it available to people around the globe.”
In addition to offering the most affordable whole-genome sequencing, Nebula Genomics seeks to address the mounting concerns over genetic data privacy that have slowed down the growth of the direct-to-consumer genetic testing market. To this end, Nebula Genomics is building a secure data management platform that combines blockchain-enabled transparency with privacy-preserving computing. This technology enables Nebula Genomics users to benefit from affordable personal genome sequencing without risking their privacy.
Individuals who purchase 30x whole-genome sequencing from Nebula Genomics will retain full control of their genomic data, receive weekly updated reports based on the latest scientific discoveries, get an in-depth ancestry analysis, and become empowered to explore their data using browser-based genome discovery tools.