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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2006-04 > 1145036851


From: Bonnie Schrack <>
Subject: WSJ SNP article of interest
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 13:47:31 -0400


"grandcross" wrote:

> Today's Wall Street Journal has a front page article (left column)
> dealing with the "lightning speed" of identifying SNP's in DNA derived
> from blood samples by employing machines embedded with a chip that
> detects 300,000 genetic markers at once. According to the story, this
> time saving and effective method has resulted in a flurry of medical
> research to find genes that may be the cause of illnesses such as
> macular degeneration, Alzheimer's, diabetes, etc. Of course, this
> entails the "critical assumption" diseases are influenced by gene
> variants.
>
> One of the companies highlighted is the non-profit Translational
> Genomics Research Institute of Phoenix which apparently has some ties
> to research being conducted at Arizona State. Wonder if Mike Hammer at
> the University of Arizona is up to speed .


Thanks, I haven't read the article yet, but hope to soon.

There's a lot I don't understand about the costs of using these new
technologies. I read an article about how an Affymetrix chip allowed
some medical researchers to test for 10,000 autosomal SNPs at a minimal
cost, for some families who needed to be screened for rare disease
mutations. Then, at GeneDx, a local company, I saw in their price list,
http://www.genedx.com/prices.php
that they are charging upwards of $1000 per SNP to test for some rare
diseases, and about $350 minimum, per SNP test (since these are
autosomal, they have to test a pair of sites, but still.)

What's the scoop here? What's the real story on how much this kind of
testing costs, and why?

Bonnie

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