The Carlson curve is a term to describe the rate of DNA sequencing or cost per sequenced base as a function of time.[1] It is the biotechnological equivalent of Moore's law. Carlson predicted that the doubling time of DNA sequencing technologies (measured by cost and performance) would be at least as fast as Moore's law.[2]
The term was coined by The Economist[3] and is named after author Rob Carlson.[1]
Carlson curves illustrate the rapid (in some cases above exponential growth) decreases in cost, and increases in performance, of a variety of technologies, including DNA sequencing, DNA synthesis and a range of physical and computational tools used in protein production and in determining protein structures.
Moore's Law started being profoundly out-paced in January 2008 when the centers transitioned from Sanger sequencing to newer DNA sequencing technologies:[4] 454 sequencing with average read length=300-400 bases (10-fold) Illumina and SOLiD sequencing with average read length=50-100 bases (30-fold).