Hi everybody,
I have just read this very interesting article in PNAS (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/20...80107.abstract) on the use of Illumina sequencing for determining microbial diversity at unprecedented depth. Obviously sequence output was not the limiting factor in this study but rather the computational analyses that are required to make sense of the sequence data.
My question concerns the costs of sequencing for this paper. It is described as "this study presents the results of sequencing barcoded PCR amplicons from environmental (n = 25) and mock community (n = 3) samples using one full plate (seven lanes plus phiX control lane) on the Illumina GAIIx platform."
So can anybody give an estimate of how much this study would currently cost to perform. Or to put it in another way: how much does it cost to sequence ~25 samples on a plate on an Illumina GAIIx sequencer?
I am trying to convince the head of my department to invest in metagenomics and I am quite convinced that it is smarter to invest in people (particularly those with BioIT expertise which can handle the data-output) rather than buying an expensive sequencer (because the sequencing can just as well be done by commercial service providers or dedicated sequencing facilities at academic centers).
I have just read this very interesting article in PNAS (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/20...80107.abstract) on the use of Illumina sequencing for determining microbial diversity at unprecedented depth. Obviously sequence output was not the limiting factor in this study but rather the computational analyses that are required to make sense of the sequence data.
My question concerns the costs of sequencing for this paper. It is described as "this study presents the results of sequencing barcoded PCR amplicons from environmental (n = 25) and mock community (n = 3) samples using one full plate (seven lanes plus phiX control lane) on the Illumina GAIIx platform."
So can anybody give an estimate of how much this study would currently cost to perform. Or to put it in another way: how much does it cost to sequence ~25 samples on a plate on an Illumina GAIIx sequencer?
I am trying to convince the head of my department to invest in metagenomics and I am quite convinced that it is smarter to invest in people (particularly those with BioIT expertise which can handle the data-output) rather than buying an expensive sequencer (because the sequencing can just as well be done by commercial service providers or dedicated sequencing facilities at academic centers).
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