The amount of information required about individual genomes depends upon the scientific or clinical purpose, but present methods generally provide far too little information and at much too great a cost. This has been a constraint on progress in understanding the genetic components of common human diseases and the variable response of individuals to drugs. The systems Solexa is developing are designed to provide economically very large amounts of information about individual genomes including up to virtually the entire individual genomic sequence.

Solexas systems are based on several major technological breakthroughs that allow genomic DNA to be Т‘read directly at very high speed. Existing methods require genomic DNA to be copied so that sufficient amounts of a particular sequence exist for it to be read. This is expensive and time consuming. Reading methods are also slow. In contrast, SolexaТ’s systems incorporate technology that allows fast direct reading of the genomic DNA itself.

To date we have raised about ВЈ15 million (22 million; $23 million) in venture capital investment that has enabled us to make rapid progress with the development of our technologies and system prototype.