Biocodicology - A Deeper Dive

[MichelleL11]

Did I understand correctly that the twenty years that Raymond has quoted refer to the pure development time of the technology ? I had assumed that the technology would already be available but the provision of the infrastructure (extensive, accumulated database) would take this long time.

It's actually a mix (I'll be discussing the technique sensitivities and the slightly counter-intuitive issues surrounding that.  But sensitivities will increase over time -- it definitely has already).  But you are correct that the database building (e.g. collection of results to have something to compare) is likely to take the longest of the two issues to resolve.  You are correct this is less a technology issue and more a funding, number of experiments being done/number of labs involved and specimen access issue more than anything else.  Will have more concrete information about all of this in the reviews.

Am I correct in assuming that the samples needed from manuscripts will be minimally invasive ( μg / μl )?

Generally, yes -- but I'll be discussing the pros and cons of needing to harvest samples in this way as well.  As you'll see -- it definitely complicates the interpretations of results but is likely absolutely a deal-breaker in terms of obtaining access to many manuscripts.