Carlson curve
{{Short description|Describes the rate of DNA sequencing or cost per sequenced base as a function of time}}
File:Historic cost of sequencing a human genome.svg.]]
The Carlson curve is a term to describe the rate of DNA sequencing or cost per sequenced base as a function of time.{{cite book|author= Robert H. Carlson |title= Biology Is Technology : The Promise, Peril, and New Business of Engineering Life |location= Cambridge, MA |publisher= Harvard University Press |date= April 2011 |url= http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674060159}} It is the biotechnological equivalent of Moore's law. Carlson predicted that the doubling time of DNA sequencing technologies (measured by cost and performance) would be at least as fast as Moore's law.{{cite journal|title= The Pace and Proliferation of Biological Technologies|author= Robert Carlson |journal= Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science |date= September 2003 |volume= 1 |issue= 3: 203–214 |pages= 203–214 |doi= 10.1089/153871303769201851 |pmid= 15040198 |url= http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-pace-and-proliferation-of-biological-technologies-2 |url-access= subscription }}
History
The term was coined by The Economist{{cite news|title= Life 2.0. |date= August 31, 2006 |publisher= The Economist |url= http://www.economist.com/node/7854314}} and is named after author Rob Carlson.
Carlson curves illustrate the rapid (in some cases above exponential growth) decreases in cost, and increases in performance, of a variety of technologies, including DNA sequencing, DNA synthesis and a range of physical and computational tools used in protein production and in determining protein structures.
Next generation sequencing
File:Illumina Hiseq 2000 sequencers, BGI Hong Kong sequencing room.JPG
Moore's Law started being profoundly out-paced in January 2008 when the centers transitioned from Sanger sequencing to newer DNA sequencing technologies:{{cite web |url= http://www.genome.gov/sequencingcosts/ |title= DNA Sequencing Costs |publisher= National Human Genome Research Institute}} 454 sequencing with average read length=300-400 bases (10-fold) Illumina and SOLiD sequencing with average read length=50-100 bases (30-fold).
References
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