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The price of getting your DNA sequenced just dropped in half--to $48,000.
With the new service, being offered by Illumina ( ILMN - news - people ), a San Diego biotechnology company, patients will sit down with a physician, get a prescription and then, after a period of time allowing them to have second thoughts, will receive an Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) computer loaded with their DNA sequence and software for reading it. On the computer (the customer's to keep), will be the patient's entire genome--the encoding of all 3 billion DNA letters in the body.
"We thought it was important to get on this track," says Illumina Chief Executive Jay Flatley, who announced the service Wednesday at the Consumer Genetics Show. "Starting now is going to improve any of the kinks in this system."
The move to introduce a service that sells genetic information to consumers--even at a steep price--represents an important strategic step for Flatley. He is preparing for the day when people will be able to get their genes sequenced for cheap--a few...