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Nature Medicine 14, 8 (2008)
doi:10.1038/nm0108-8

Q & A: Marc Hodosh

Genevive Bjorn1

  1. Maui, Hawaii


These days, if you want to have your entire genome sequenced, you need to spend about a million dollars and wait for months. But the Archon X Prize for Genomics—an international competition for speedy gene mapping—might change this by giving companies a huge incentive to develop better DNA sequencing technologies. The $10 million prize, first announced in late 2006, was donated by Stewart Blusson, a philanthropist and mining multimillionaire. Marc Hodosh, senior director of the Archon X Prize, explains why genomics was chosen for an X Prize and predicts what lies ahead for the field.


What is the genomics X Prize for and how will it be judged?The prize of $10 million is for the first team that can accurately sequence 100 human genomes in ten days at a maximum cost of $10,000 per genome.