Blurry Lines and the Cost Curve

"The line between computing and biology has begun to blur," says this New York Times article focusing on Complete Genomics' efforts to offer cheaper sequencing through the combination of biology, chemistry, and computing. The Times says that Complete Genomics' origin is "a classic Silicon Valley start-up story" — an entrepreneur with a background in physics and math partnering with an optical physicist to start a company that offers sequencing as a service, rather than selling machines. Of course, Complete Genomics has a number of competitors. The Times notes that "because there is no clear winner yet, all of the companies are pushing hard to get down the cost curve as fast as possible."