Roche hostile takeover bid for Illumina!

[gringer]

I'm not sure I'd agree with that assessment. Sure PacBio and Illumina both employ colour (as does SOLiD) but otherwise they are quite different. PacBio is a single-molecule technology which makes it markedly different from the others

Fair enough. My main line of thought was that the technologies are different enough that they could probably exist together. I guess I just saw too much difference between IonTorrent and Illumina, and hunted around for something more appropriate (casting aside SOLiD without a second thought). For some reason I ignored the single-molecule difference.

[nickloman]

IonTorrent is a closer competitor to the 454 technology. The Illumina sequencing method is a bit more like Pacific Bioscience's SMRT cell, which uses different colours for different bases. That looks like it's still got a fair bit of time before it develops into a large-scale competitor.

I'm not sure I'd agree with that assessment. Sure PacBio and Illumina both employ colour (as does SOLiD) but otherwise they are quite different. PacBio is a single-molecule technology which makes it markedly different from the others.

Ion Torrent, 454, SOLiD and Illumina all require amplification of DNA to produce clonal molecular colonies for detection, but the first three technologies use bead-based emPCR whereas Illumina uses bridge amplification on a solid surface.

Right now your choice for whole genome sequencing of humans is between Illumina and SOLiD. Proton should be a third option when released.

454 and PGM are suited for microbial-sized genome projects and amplicon sequencing.

PacBio is good for specialised applications including eukaryotic de novo assembly and detection of nucleotide base modifications but doesn't directly compete with the others as doesn't have the throughput right now.

[gringer]

Sounds like a bad idea considering that Illumina probably has reached its peak and their technology is strongly threatened to be made obsolete within the next 1-2 years (by IonTorrent).

IonTorrent is a closer competitor to the 454 technology. The Illumina sequencing method is a bit more like Pacific Bioscience's SMRT cell, which uses different colours for different bases. That looks like it's still got a fair bit of time before it develops into a large-scale competitor.

[nickloman]

Sounds like a bad idea considering that Illumina probably has reached its peak and their technology is strongly threatened to be made obsolete within the next 1-2 years (by IonTorrent).

This is why constant innovation is important. I don't believe Illumina are out of ideas just yet. Roche/454 seem to be though.

[steinmann]

Sounds like a bad idea considering that Illumina probably has reached its peak and their technology is strongly threatened to be made obsolete within the next 1-2 years (by IonTorrent).

[nickloman]

Roche is a giant, with a market cap of $153.50bn vs $4.5bn for Illumina, so I guess they could make this happen if they really wanted to.

But in a way this news is strange because if Roche cares enough about the sequencing market to make an expensive hostile takeover bid for Illumina, why did they let the 454 technology stagnate for so long.

Being a player in sequencing demands constant technological innovation. Perhaps they have learnt their lesson!?

[flxlex]

Reactions on twitter seem to be very negative, echoing yours: "Let me be the first of many to say that I don't want Roche anywhere near illumina"

Would it mean the end of 454, and the start of the end for Illumina sequencing?

[ECO]

Roche is attempting a hostile takeover of Illumina...still absorbing this news...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewh...dna-tech-race/