Tag: sequencing

A gene panel is a subset of an exome, and an exome is about 1.5% of a genome. Here's how the three differ in coverage, cost, file sizes, and what you can re-analyze later.

A technical guide to getting your DNA sequenced without handing the data to a consumer platform: what each tier of testing can resolve, where the error rates live, and how to store and analyze the files yourself.

A practical walkthrough of going from FASTQ, BAM/CRAM, and VCF files to an actual nucleotide sequence you can read, translate, and check against the reads it came from.

A comparison of the companies that will sequence or map your genome, what data each one hands back, and how to judge an offer by coverage, read length, and file deliverables rather than marketing copy.

A practical spec for buying whole-genome sequencing: coverage, library prep, file formats, the QC you should run yourself, and what WGS still misses.

Cash prices for pharmacogenetic panels run from about $50 to over $2,000 for largely the same gene list. Here is what drives the spread, what insurance pays, and how to derive the same star-allele calls from whole-genome data yourself.

A practical guide to privacy in DNA testing: why genomes resist anonymization, what to ask a provider before you send a sample, and how to hold raw sequence data safely once you have it.

A breakdown of real 2026 prices for SNP arrays, exomes, and whole-genome sequencing, what each one measures, and the storage, compute, and interpretation costs that follow.

A palm-sized nanopore sequencer will sequence your DNA on your desk, but getting a usable human genome out of one takes several flow cells, a GPU, and a clear view of what long reads do well and badly. Here is the realistic path, with formats, inputs, and numbers.

A line-by-line breakdown of exome sequencing prices in 2026: raw-data-only versus clinical CLIA reports, what drives the spread, and what the files look like when they land.

A practical guide to ordering whole-genome sequencing for yourself: what coverage and read length to insist on, which files to demand, how to check quality yourself, and what the data can and cannot tell you.

Whole exome sequencing reads the ~1-2% of your genome that codes for protein. What it finds, what it silently misses, and how to read the files yourself.

Self-pay pharmacogenomic panels run roughly $200-$500, Medicare and commercial plans cover them only under narrow conditions, and a single whole-genome sequence answers the same questions permanently. Here is the pricing, the billing codes, and how to run the interpretation yourself.

You can run a nanopore sequencer on your kitchen table and get real reads, but you cannot get clinical-grade whole-genome coverage that way. Here is what home sequencing produces, what it costs, and where sending a sample out is the better call.

What a WGS service delivers, what the files look like, what coverage and platform choices change, and how to tell a real provider from a reseller.

A technical answer to what makes genetic testing private: who holds the raw files, what the consent terms permit, how re-identifiable the data is, and how to store and analyze a genome yourself.

A breakdown of the genomic testing market by category — clinical labs, direct-to-consumer arrays, research-grade sequencing providers, and tumor profiling — with the file formats, coverage depths, and failure modes that decide whether the data is useful to you.

A breakdown of WES pricing: research-grade versus CLIA-clinical, what drives the per-sample cost, how trios are billed, and why the sequencing is the cheap part of the project.

Consumer 30x WGS runs $300-600, clinical CLIA-reported WGS runs roughly $1,000-3,000 out of pocket, and the difference is depth, deliverables, and interpretation rather than sequencing chemistry. Here is how to read a price and verify what you received.

A technical account of the privacy properties of consumer and clinical DNA testing: what data exists, who holds it, what re-identification attacks work, and a concrete setup for keeping your own sequence data under your control.

Pharmacogenomic panels marketed for ADHD medication selection rest on thin evidence for stimulants. Here is what the genotypes predict, which variants have real pharmacokinetic support, and how to extract them from your own sequencing data.

HIPAA compliance is a property of the entity holding your data, not of a sequencing assay. Here is what HIPAA does and does not cover for genetic data, what to read in a lab's contract instead, and how to take custody of your own FASTQ, BAM, and VCF files.

A practical comparison of Oxford Nanopore, Illumina, Element, PacBio, and Sanger for sequencing one person's genome: why we would choose nanopore long reads, what to ask a provider for, and the pipeline we would run on the output.