Pacific Biosciences is developing a DNA sequencing machine that within a few years might be able to unravel an individual’s entire genome in minutes, for less than $1,000.

The company is just one entrant in a heated race for the “$1,000 genome”–a gold rush of activity whose various contestants threaten to shake up the current $1-billion-a-year market for machines that sequence genomes.

The price today: $350,000.