Copyright Bloomberg
The NovaSeq X Plus is a half-ton machine that looks like an industrial freezer, with a big touchscreen on top and racks to hold cartridges of chemicals below. Its job is to simultaneously sequence 128 samples of human DNA, revealing their unique markers and—its designers hope—delivering insights that will lead to personalized health care and disease prevention. Each time the machine processes a batch of samples, it produces as much as 16 terabytes of data, equal to the storage capacity of 500 MacBooks. Because the X Plus costs about $1.25 million, many labs would consider themselves lucky to have even one. As he walks a Bloomberg Businessweek reporter through his 51,700-square-foot facility, Albarah El-Khani, who oversees operations at the center of the United Arab Emirates’ national gene-sequencing program, shows off a single room housing 15 of them. “I don’t think you’ll see that anywhere,” he says, beaming. In addition to the roomful of sequencers, the building has areas for storing genetic samples, separating blood plasma, extracting pallets of DNA and cryopreserving stem cells. Everything, El-Khani notes repeatedly, is just massive. If nothing else the place is a draw for visitors from abroad. Other visitors on this particular day include the former race-car driver Toto Wolff , now chief executive officer of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One racing team, and a contingent from the pharmaceutical giant Roche, who surprise El-Khani by showing up for a meeting he didn’t know he was involved in.
