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Genome Mapping Goes Further Aboard the Ion Bus

While no one told me to “step right up,” I’m pretty sure I just saw a traveling medicine show in Times Square, where the New York Genome Center introduced itself to the confused, Broadway-discount-seeking public by hosting Life Technologies’ “Ion...

While no one told me to "step right up," I'm pretty sure I just saw a traveling medicine show in Times Square, where the New York Genome Center introduced itself to the confused, Broadway-discount-seeking public by hosting Life Technologies' Ion Genome-Mapping Mobile Lab and Bus.

The biotech company Life Technologies outfitted a '70s bus with a compact mobile laboratory that can sequence a genome in just four hours using their new Ion semiconductor-based decoding equipment. Considering it took 13 years and 3 billion dollars to sequence the first human genome, claims that the new Ion Proton will map a human genome in 4 hours for a thousand dollars represent a field in medicine in the midst of a growth spurt. The bus drives around the country showing off the new equipment to research laboratories and to members of the public willing to get into automobiles with strangers who are promising to show them an E. coli sequence.

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Aboard the bus, the Ion machines quietly mapped out all the genetic data in a non-virulent strain of E. coli bacteria over the span of four hours, during which a surprise baby shower took place in the back (a throwback to the old method of genetics, I guess), and those weirdos who dress up like Disney characters climbed in the front. It wasn't exactly Ken Kesey-level of freaky, but it was pretty strange when you really thought about it.

The sequencing chips on the right are about a thousand dollars each and can sequence an entire human genome (via Life Technologies)

Like a selfish child, hell-bent of being the center of attention, New York City is determined to be on the forefront of genomic research and industry. "We'll be one of the largest sequencing and bioinformatics centers in the country," said Nancy Kelley, the founding executive director of the New York Genome Center. "Ultimately, I think, we will grow into one of the largest in the world."

The New York Genome Center opens later this year to sequence genomes, research and advance genomic work, and store the explosion of new data in a "data warehouse" for scientists to sift through for comparison and what not. In the next few weeks they'll announce where exactly in Manhattan they'll be located.

Kelley is looking to get New York back into the game, after missing the so-called "genomic decade" that spanned from 2003—when they finished mapping the human genome—to the present. Man, what a way better nickname for the decade than the "aughts." New Yorkers counter that they were all busy dancing to The Rapture in 2003, and then some other stuff came up, but they'll get on it.

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Nancy Kelley, left (via Life Technologies)

Genomic research could impact medicine in a few different ways. For starters, genetic tests to determine how your body metabolizes something like cancer medication could help doctors to prescribe precise dosages. While some 10 percent of FDA drugs already recommend or require genetic testing for optimal treatment, the NYGC estimates that this number could climb as high as 60 percent.

Researchers in the bus also explained that doctors might someday analyze the tumor itself and look where the genetic sequence is malfunctioning and tailor the treatment based on that.

And finally, Kelly estimates that within "2-3 years" a genetic run-down will be as de rigueur as getting inoculated, and used to look for genetic predispositions for illness and also give you something else to worry about along with your credit rating.

While the ability of the machine shoots forward, genomic testing is still limited by a data bottleneck. Many scientific disciplines—including astronomy, particle physics and genomics—are capable of gathering data way faster than it can be interpreted. "Essentially you've got these huge data sets that scientists don't know how to interpret and thus can't apply to their work," said Kelley. "What we need are: computational biologists, mathematicians, physicists—people who are used to using algorithms to sift through data and look for patterns."

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A touring scientist aboard the bus demonstrates the Ion machine that sequenced a non-virulent strain of E. coli Wednesday morning in Times Square (via Ben Richmond)

Kelley hopes that opening the new center in the heart of New York will keep the researchers and their partners—from 11 area hospitals and university medical centers—in close contact. She also noted that New York's incredibly diverse population will allow the research to span a broader swath of humanity, even if opening a medical center in Manhattan has a lot of particular rules on ceiling height and other little rules that drive people crazy/to Connecticut.

Even if more attention is paid to sequencing the human genome, understanding the genes in a strain of virulent bacteria comes in handy, too. During an E. coli outbreak in Germany last year, researchers used an Ion instrument to decode the strand of DNA that would kill people. "Using that information," explained Mauricio Minotta, who does PR for Life Technologies, "we have the technology to test food samples to search for the harmful strain and find the source."

If containing outbreaks of dangerous pathogens doesn't seem important to you, you're probably not standing in a white bus in Times Square, but also there's plenty more to be excited about. The gang aboard the genomic Mystery Machine has used the lab in the Napa Valley to map out bacteria that help in winemaking and on the Gulf Coast they used it to test the water and the microbial life following the BP oil spill.

It's a strange place we've come to as a society, where we advertise breakthroughs in medical technology alongside ads for American Eagle's new kids line and that one Jonas brother appearing on Broadway. But I guess that's the magical mystery of the genomic bus tour.

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(Top image via Ben Richmond)