The Polonator is an automated, second-generation genome sequencing machine that is based on polony sequencing

Polony sequencing

Polony Sequencing is an inexpensive but highly accurate multiplex sequencing technique that can be used to “read” millions of immobilized DNA sequences in parallel. This technique was first developed by Dr. George Church group in Harvard Medical School...

 technology developed by George Church

George Church

George Church is an American molecular geneticist. He is currently Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and MIT, and a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.With...

's group at Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....

. It will be used for the PGP (Personal Genome Project

Personal Genome Project

The Personal Genome Project is a long term, large cohort study which aims to sequence and publicize the complete genomes and medical records of 100,000 volunteers, in order to enable research into personalized medicine. It was initiated by Harvard University's George Church and announced in...

), and is available for sale at a price well below that of other second generation sequencers. The Polonator is inexpensive to operate, and features open source software, reagents, and protocols. The Polonator is being manufactured by Dover, a Danaher Motion Company.