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When Sanger and Gilbert won the Nobel Prize in 1980 for developing techniques to sequence DNA, the speed with which DNA could be sequenced made it highly improbable that whole genomes would be sequenced in their lifetimes. Yet within just 20 years, the application of robotics and an investment of more than US$2 billion enabled sequencing of the human genome and many microbial and animal genomes. That accomplishment has led visionaries to speak of the day when each person’s genome will be sequenced early in life for prognostic purposes — for example, to identify individual risks for various diseases and likely responsiveness to specific drug treatments. Yet with even the fastest current sequencing techniques, the time and expense of creating…