Basically. It's been a while since I've worked in wetlabs (clinical now) but looking at their methodology the fixed equipment costs would seem comparable to ddP

Basically. It's been a while since I've worked in wetlabs (clinical now) but looking at their methodology the fixed equipment costs would seem comparable to ddPCR and I'd expect cheaper than NGS currently used for ctDNA. Per-unit consumable costs also seem negligible. The specific AFM setup they used here is pretty old and can be replicated (relatively) inexpensively. I would guess the biggest cost barrier/disadvantage would be throughput rather than setup costs but these results appear to be a potentially good and/or cost-effective solution to the sensitivity issues.