AAP A new system bought by Sydney's Garvan Institute can map the genetic makeup of 350 people a week.

Australian medicine has taken a leap into the future with the purchase of a system that can quickly and cheaply map a person's genetic makeup.

The new system bought by Sydney's Garvan Institute can map 350 people a week at a cost of $1000 each.

This means doctors will receive quick feedback on the best way to treat cancer patients and scientists will have massive power to build an Australian genetic database.

The system differs from current genetic testing in that it maps the entire genome rather than specific gene mutations such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 that cause breast and ovarian cancer.

The first whole human genome was mapped more than a decade ago by an international team of scientists at a cost $1 billion.

Garvan is one of a few organisations in the world to buy the HiSeq X Ten Sequencing System, according to an announcement in San Diego on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT).

"Over the next few years, we have an opportunity to learn as much about the genetics of human disease as we have learned in the history of medicine," said Garvan executive director Professor John Mattick.

"We have reached a tipping point where genome sequencing has become achievable on a broad scale."

He expected genomic sequencing to become widely available to the general public in the next few years.

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Major leap for Aust genetic medicine

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