Helicos's technology images the extension of individual DNA molecules using a defined primer and individual fluorescently labeled nucleotides, which contain a "Virtual Terminator" preventing incorporation of multiple nucleotides per cycle. The "Virtual Terminator" technology was developed by Dr. Suhaib Siddiqi,^[2][3] while at Helicos Biosciences.^[4][5]

In the August 2009 issue of Nature Biotechnology, Dr. Stephen Quake, a professor of bioengineering at Stanford University and a co-founder of Helicos BioSciences, sequenced his own genome, using Single Molecule Sequencing for under $50,000 in reagents.^[6]

On November 15, 2012, Helicos BioSciences filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.^[7]

The patents that Helicos had licensed from Cal Tech (where Quake was when he made the underlying inventions) were subsequently licensed to Direct Genomics, founded by He Jiankui, a former post-doc in Quake's lab who gained notoriety in November 2018 when he created the first germline genome-edited babies.^[8]