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The Gene Sherpa predicts that Complete Genomics will win the Archon X Prize in Genomics in 2010. In the comments, Keith Robison is wisely skeptical. I agree with Keith - it's unlikely that the X Prize will be won this year, and if it is the winner is unlikely to be Complete Genomics. For those who don't know the prize, here's the brief summary: the X Prize Foundation will give US$10 million to the first team to satisfy the following conditions: sequence 100 human genomes within 10 days or less, with an accuracy of no more than one error in every 100,000 bases sequenced [note that the…

Still quite a way, based on this survey of second-generation sequencing users (subscription only, I think) conducted by the industry publication In Sequence. Along with a range of other questions, the survey asked users about the cost to generate one billion base pairs (one gigabase, or Gb) on their platform at the end of 2008, which is about as current as we're likely to get. I've estimated below the total cost to sequence a complete* human genome, assuming an overall depth of coverage** of 30x, for the three most widely-used second-generation platforms: The fine print Note that the number…