New genome lab equipment patented by scientists

Scientists from Imperial College London are in the process of creating new lab equipment that could significantly increase the speed at which genomes are sequenced.

An early prototype of the technology has been patented by researchers who believe the device could change the face of DNA sequencing within the next decade.

The process could ultimately allow scientists to sequence an entire genome in one procedure, reducing costs and time considerably.

Dr Joshua Edel, one of the authors of the study from the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London, said: "Our initial experiments suggest that you could theoretically do a complete scan of the 3,165 million bases in the human genome within minutes."

He went on to add that this would lead to "huge benefits" for medical testing and DNA profiling for police.

Elsewhere, scientists at the university recently sequenced the genome for a fungal disease that affects barley and cereal crops.