This IDC Health Insights Perspective highlights the author's view that, when combined with numerous technological advances and innovations in both IT and the life sciences, the commercial arrival of the $1,000 genome will drive the commoditization of whole genome sequencing (WGS) and enable researchers to effectively uncover the primary role of genetics in human biology at the mechanistic level sometime in the next 10 years. This achievement will fulfill Ray Kurzweil's prediction of an in silico human being on or slightly ahead of his predictions to the industry made over a decade ago.
IDC believes that low-cost access to whole genome sequencing will empower disease researchers around the world to sequence tissues from their disease biobanks, creating data that will enable the systematic discovery of the specific genetic factors associated with human biology and the manifestation of disease. Concurrent technological advances in the life science, healthcare provider, and IT industries will directly support and empower the transformation of this data into actionable knowledge. While it will be discovered that many diseases will not be strongly impacted by genetics, a significant number of diseases will be found to be directly affected by genomic factors, enabling healthcare providers to better tailor medical treatment based directly on an individual's genetic profile.