Complete Genomics announces 500 genomes in the pipeline

I'll be at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology meeting in Marco Island, Florida for the next week, soaking up sun and genomics, keeping my eye out for the anticipated major announcements from sequencing companies and researchers, and quietly panicking about my presentation on Thursday. You'll hear more about the meeting from me and the other bloggers there - Luke Jostins, David Dooling, Dan Koboldt and Anthony Fejes - over the next week.It's amazing to think that it was at the same meeting in 2009 - just one year ago - that Complete Genomics emerged dramatically from stealth mode, announcing results from its first human genome sequence. The company has had a fairly impressive year since: despite delays in obtaining funding due to the economic situation the company successfully pulled in $45 million last August to fund the construction of its new sequencing facility, and published aSciencepaper on analysis of their first three genomes.Now, on the eve of the meeting, the company has announced that it has orders booked for 500 more complete genome sequences. The press release also notes that the company successfully churned out a total of 50 sequences in 2009 for more than 10 customers.These are impressive numbers for a company whose technology and business model - a unique "genome factory" approach in which its technology is deployed only in its own custom-built facilities rather than sold to genome facilities - were regarded with profound skepticism by many researchers in the AGBT audience last year. Will the company be able to meet its stated target of 10,000 genomes (oops, I mean 5,000 genomes) this year? We'll see.Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing what else the company has to say in the presentation by its CSO Rade Drmanac on Saturday. Subscribe to Genetic Future.

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