World Record for Number of Tests Achieved in Single DNA Sequencing Analysis

Up to now, researchers have been limited to running just a few DNA samples at a time, at a cost of about US$16,000 per run. Swedish researchers have devised a new method that allows 5,000 samples to be run at the same time and at the same price. This cuts the cost per sample result considerably and constitutes a world record for the number of tests run in a single DNA sequencing analysis.

"We were virtually forced to invent a method for running numerous DNA tests at once. Otherwise our analyses would have taken an incredibly long time and would have cost enormous sums of money,” said Dr. Peter Savolainen, a researcher in biology at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH; Stockholm). He, his research colleague Dr. Afshin Ahmadian, and the then doctoral candidate Mårten Neiman jointly developed the new technique, which means that DNA sequencing analyses can be performed both in record time and at a remarkably low cost.

"Today the great majority of samples are run 10 at a time. This yields a cost of SEK 10,000 [about US$1,600] per sample. We have run 5,000 samples at the same time at the same cost, that is, SEK 100,000. This computes to SEK 20 per sample,” noted Dr. Savolainen. He pointed out several areas where his and his colleagues' new technology can have a great impact. One of them is cancer research; where there is a great need to scan numerous cell samples from many individuals.

"Another field where our method can be of huge importance is in organ transplants. Many DNA analyses are needed to create a database for matching organ donors with transplant recipients. This will be of major importance to DNA research,” stated Dr. Savolainen. He added that now, even before the method is validated, there are several projects at the Science for Life Laboratory (where KTH is involved) in line to use this mode of analysis. Moreover, it is possible to scale up the method so that even more samples can be tested simultaneously. "Simply put, we mark each sample in an ingenious way with an ID, so each test result can be distinguished,” concluded Dr. Savolainen.

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