Health
Health
Designed to accelerate personalized medicine, this prize challenged teams to sequence 100 whole human genomes with unprecedented speed, accuracy, and affordability—pushing the boundaries of genomics.
Impact
Although the competition was cancelled, its legacy continues. XPRIZE preserved blood samples from over 100 centenarians by creating cell lines—ensuring this rare genetic resource can be sequenced and shared on an open-data platform. Even without awarding the prize, the effort advanced genomic research and created a lasting resource for the field.
-
Now Playing
Sponsors
Sponsors fund the prize journey from bold idea to breakthrough—shaping each competition, supporting global teams, and accelerating solutions that scale. Their backing powers impact that lasts well beyond the prize.
Latest News
Partners
Partners play a hands-on role in our prizes—co-designing competitions, supporting operations, and helping scale solutions with their expertise, resources, and global reach.
Barrier
Decoding the human genome was slow, expensive, and inaccessible, which limited its ability to transform medicine. To make genomics the foundation for precision medicine, sequencing had to become radically faster, cheaper, and more accurate.
Breakthrough
Breakthrough technologies would enable rapid, affordable sequencing of 100 human genomes with unprecedented accuracy, democratizing access to genomic data and fueling patient-driven care and medical innovation.
About the Prize
The $10M Archon Genomics XPRIZE launched in 2006 to accelerate personalized medicine by transforming genome sequencing. Teams were challenged to sequence 100 human genomes within 30 days, achieving one error per million base pairs at a cost of $10,000 or less per genome.
But by 2013, the genomics industry had already exceeded those benchmarks, making sequencing faster, cheaper, and more accurate than the prize envisioned initially. Rather than shift the goalposts, XPRIZE made the strategic decision to cancel the competition and celebrate the field’s extraordinary progress. As Peter H. Diamandis put it, “If we are only launching prizes we know will succeed, we are not taking enough risk.”
The Archon Genomics XPRIZE showed that sometimes bold challenges accelerate progress so rapidly that the world overtakes them—and when that happens, everyone benefits.
Prize Schedule
Launched in 2006, the competition was cancelled in 2013 after rapid advances in sequencing technology surpassed the prize’s goals, proving the field had already achieved the vision.
Other Competitions
IN HEALTH
-
$101 MillionActive XPRIZE HealthspanHEVOLUTION | SOLVE FSHD
Health
-
$1 MillionAwarded XPRIZE Next-Gen Mask ChallengeMark Benioff | Jim Cramer
Health
-
$2.25 MillionAwarded Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGENokia
Health
-
FUNDRAISINGFuture Ovarian Decoder
Health
-
$500 ThousandAwarded XPRIZE Pandemic Response ChallengeCognizant
Health
-
$10 MillionAwarded Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZEQualcomm
Health
-
$6 MillionAwarded XPRIZE Rapid COVID TestingAnthem Inc.
Health