$1000 genomes = 1000x coverage for just £20,000

It strikes me that if you can now sequence a genome for $1000, then you could buy 1000x coverage for not much more than a 30x genome cost a couple of years ago! Using a PCR-free approach I can imagine that this would be the most sensitive tool to determine tumour, or population, heterogeneity. I’m sure that sampling statistics might limit the ability to detect low-prevalence alleles but I’m amazed by the possibility none-the-less.

• 1 X-Ten run costs $1,000
• 1000x requires 33 X-Ten runs (30x each)
• $33,000 = £20625

If you’re running a ridiculously high Human genome project on X-Ten do let me know!