Sequencing Companies Serving Niche Markets

Discussions of Dan Koboldt's recent blog post outlining "Next-Gen Sequencing in 2010," are reverberating throughout the blogosphere: BNET picked up his post and Daniel MacArthur has contributed his thoughts on the state of sequencing technologies, post-AGBT meeting. Kobolt suggests that, in stark contrast to the disposition of the sequencing powerhouses in 2009 ― "every player was gunning to take over the world" ― companies now appear to have "a niche in mind." In the "general sequencing" category, Koboldt writes, it remains Illumina versus Life Technologies. Roche/454 platforms cater to researchers seeking long-read sequencing runs, while Complete Genomics is still the frontrunner in "sequencing as a service." This year's debut of the Ion Torrent sequencing machine introduces what Koboldt calls "sequencing for the masses," while Pacific Biosciences and Oxford Nanopore are focusing on targeted applications.