The Genome Center at Washington University Scales-Up on Illumina Sequencers

Illumina, Inc. announced that it has reached an agreement in principle for the Genome Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to acquire 21 genome analyzers over the next several months to support the Center’s expanding research initiatives.

Once the scale-up is complete, the Center will have an installed base of 35 Genome Analyzers. The added capacity, along with the continued improvements to the Genome Analyzer platform, will allow the Genome Center to sequence in the order of one human genome per day at 25x coverage.

“Our intention to substantially scale-up with this technology reflects our commitment to large-scale sequencing projects that aim to uncover the underlying genetic basis of various human diseases. With the rapid decline in the cost of whole-genome sequencing, we believe now is the time to embark on initiatives which were previously not possible,” said Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., Professor of Genetics and Director of the Genome Center at Washington University. “We are confident that we can further reduce the cost and accelerate the rate of human genome sequencing.”