The New York Times and Nature both have favorable reviews of Oxford Nanopore’s showy claims at Advances in Genome Biology and Technology. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please see the twitter stream, or the post at Genomes Unzipped.
A note of caution: look back at The New York Times reporting on Pacific Biosciences in early 2008 (the same author). Granted, the piece was more measured. The more glowing reporting this time around is a sign I think a reflection of the reduced skepticism to Oxford Nanopore’s claims. But 4 years is a long time, and the “$1,000 dollar genome” is probably foregone conclusion in the next 6 months to 2 years, no matter the details. That’s why I suspect that the specifics of this release will be a footnote due to the inevitable forces of technological progress, exciting as it is in the moment. The precise firm leading the charge, and the details of the technology, are of interest to nerds, but the big picture is that mass-market personal genomics is coming, and soon. How many people on the street can tell you the company which brought television to the mass audience?