Shares of Illumina surged 16 percent on Tuesday, a day after the firm unveiled a new gene-sequencing product and gave a strong fourth-quarter sales forecast.

Illumina released the NovaSeq, a sequencer which is "expected one day to enable a $100 genome," according to the firm. The first human genome sequence was completed by the U.S. government in 2003 after 13 years and $3 billion in funding.

"We believe genomics will transform human health in an unprecedented way. As a leader in our field, our challenge is to create, develop and accelerate these markets," Francis deSouza, CEO of Illumina, said at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, according to a transcript from FactSet.



Additionally, deSouza said the firm expects fourth-quarter sales of $619 million, above a Reuters estimate of $612.5 million.

Illumina shares saw their best day since Jan. 25, 2012, and was the best-performing S&P 500 component.

