Pages

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Our 2 cents: "the Chip is (not) the machine"

In Italy we had a TV ad saying "to paint a big wall you need a big paintbrush". Likewise, to sequence a large genome you need a big chip, so large that it cannot fit in the "old" Ion Torrent Personal Genome Sequencer.
After the excitement about the announcement of the new Ion Proton NGS sequencers, a number of considerations have been expressed on various NGS forums and blogs.
An interesting one is on the "Pathogens: Genes and Genomes" blog: Ion Torrent Proton Announced: The Chip Is (Not) The Machine.
I just want to add a few personal thought:
- the fact that they do not mention it in the press release or on their web site I guess that implicitly means that the Ion Proton cannot use the 414, 416 and 418 Chips :-(
- It is not fair that Life Technology do not more clearly state that to run the Ion Proton you need to buy a Ion Proton Server for $75,000.
- What will be the name of the third generation Ion Torrent-like sequencers? Maybe "Ion H+".
- With the release of the Ion Proton Life Technology clearly killed the family of Solid Genetic Analysis Systems.

No comments: