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Microbiologist Paul Keim at the ScienceWriters2011 conference in Flagstaff on October 16 explained that sequencing a pathogen's genome has dropped in 10 years from $500,000 to as low as $10. Steve Mirsky reports.
10月16日在Flagstaff召開的2011科學作家大會上， 微生物學家Paul Keim解釋道：在10年之內，排列一個病菌基因的成本已經從50萬美元降到了10美元。
“The human genome was sequenced, and in the process of moving that forward the technology that was developed was incredible. And because of their efforts in the human genome, that technology is available to folks like us.”
“ 人類的基因被排列出來了，在此過程中，技術發展驚人。受科學家們的不懈努力所賜，基因排列技術已經可以用于我們自身。”
Northern Arizona University’s Paul Keim at the ScienceWriters2011 conference. The ability to compare genomes is a powerful tool for identifying the origins of a natural disease outbreak or bioterrorism. Keim’s team examined the anthrax mailed to victims in the 2001 attacks and determined that it did not come from Iraq.
北亞利桑那大學的Paul Keim 在2011年科學作家大會上說了上面的話。比較基因的能力是鑒別到底是自然病毒還是生物恐怖主義的一個有力工具。Keim 的小組檢查了寄給2001年事件受害者的炭疽病毒，并認定其并非來自于伊拉克。
“The govt really wanted to figure out what was going on there. Half a million dollars to sequence a genome, no problem, go do it. Go do it 20 times if you want. And so we had access to this technology. And so we were able to push the limits of what could be done in this area of molecular identification of pathogens at a very early stage. Ten years ago. Now we’re doing it on everything. Because the cost of this technology has plunged. We can sequence a genome of a bacterium for somewhere between $10 and $100.”
“政府想知道發生了什么事。拿出50萬美元用于排列病菌基因，沒問題，那就做吧。做多少次都沒問題。我們已經有了這個技術。在非常早的時候，我們就能對病菌的分子鑒定上做到極致。十年之后的今天，我們已經無所不能。因為技術成本已經一降再降。我們能用10美元到100美元對一個細菌的基因進行排列。”
