Illumina machines can be tweaked to give data quickly, says Chad Nusbaum, the co-director of the Genome Sequencing and Analysis program at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass.

FORBES: The Torrent On Ion Torrent

Future research will look at how the microbiome is "established in infants and maintained throughout life, " said Bruce Birren, co-director of the Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

WSJ: Gene Map of Body's Microbes Is New Health Tool

Chad Nusbaum, co-director of the Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program at the Broad Institute, says that he thinks of the technology as being akin to digital photography: it was adopted because it was small and fast, but there was always the potential that it would replace film.

FORBES: The DNA Sequencer That Could Go To Mars

The DNA sequencing and the data analysis will be compliant with regulations for lab diagnostics.

FORBES: PerkinElmer Enters DNA Sequencing Market

In the next generation of DNA sequencing, routine DNA analysis in the clinical setting is not far off.

FORBES: Bringing the Human Genome Into the Doctor's Office

But the center will face significant hurdles: While sequencing is declining in cost, understanding the origins of diseases such as cancer and devising potential treatments requires costly and complicated analysis of the sequencing.

WSJ: New Home for Genome

The decision to enter the DNA-decoding market came about because although PerkinElmer is big player in diagnostics and in the analysis of proteins, it had no real presence in DNA sequencing.

FORBES: PerkinElmer Enters DNA Sequencing Market