genomeboy.com

Jason Bobe, DIYBio co-founder and Personal Genome Project Director of Community, on NPR:

RAZ: And so, are most of the people who are sort of these citizen scientists, I mean, are they actual scientists, or are they amateurs?

Mr. BOBE: It’s actually a wide range of different types of people. There are quite a few graduate students and professional scientists who moonlight as a citizen scientist. And we’re actually starting to see groups in various cities setting up laboratory space that’s a shared laboratory. They sort of pull their resources like clay potters have done with kilns or woodworkers have done with expensive lathes.

Listen to all of it here.

Of all the options, a company called DNA 11 offers perhaps the most personalized gift of all. It sends people a DNA collection kit to swab the inside of their cheek. For $200 to $1,000, DNA 11 analyzes the sample, takes a photo and blows it up to create a big piece of artwork that looks like colorful skyscrapers against the night sky. People can also make portraits from their fingerprints or lips.

Adrian Salamunovic, who co-founded DNA 11, has a wall-size red DNA portrait of his pet beagle in his living room. As he put it, “The trend of personalization is huge, and what’s more personal than DNA?”

deCODEme is offering 23andMe customers free uploads to its site. Daniel has details and analysis:

So, why the free offer? I’m guessing deCODEme is gambling (quite reasonably) that offering free uploads will attract a non-trivial number of 23andMe customers over to deCODEme’s interface. That then provides the Icelanders with an opportunity to give people a fair trial of their own interface, and hopefully to impress them with the quality and accessibility of the data provided.

What then? Well, bear in mind that the entire chip-based personal genomics industry is really just a transient place-holder for the real deal: interpretation of complete genome sequences. All of the personal genomics companies currently out there are simply positioning themselves for a share of the potentially enormous sequencing interpretation market that will emerge within the next couple of years as the cost of DNA sequencing plummets.

It’s therefore crucial for deCODEme to place itself in the minds of likely early adopters of sequencing products as a serious and reliable player in the interpretation field. Right now it’s failing to do that, due to the extraordinary market dominance of 23andMe - but pulling over customers with this free offer will help.

I’m ready for the “potentially enormous sequencing interpretation market” to emerge anytime now…

As “the first genomic generation” we will set the rules that many future generations may follow. Will we treat our genomes like our faces, which we share publicly even though they reveal details about our health, ancestry, and personality? Or will we be forced to hide them from view? Knowing our DNA could make us think of ourselves more mechanically, and yet increase our humanity by embracing our diversity. It could render us less mysterious, yet more awe-inspiring. Our genomes are a vast future resource. How we handle them will define us as a species—not as a fuzzy average, but with our individualism evident in detail.

- George Church in Newsweek

I have to start watching more TV.

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is back and better than ever…we hope:

The commission’s wider scope will also force some tough choices in deciding priorities, says [George] Annas. “Doctors’ [involvement in] force-feeding prisoners at Guantanamo, doctors and torture, and international human-research rules are pressing issues of our day which demand our attention,” he says. Among the other issues he thinks the commission should juggle are new reproductive technologies, an overhaul of informed-consent procedures and — perhaps most immediate — fairer ways to apportion health care. 

To that modest list I’d add achieving peace in the Middle East, ending world hunger, eliminating poverty, curing cancer, and repairing the global economy. I can think of two guys I’d appoint immediately…at least, I think they’re two different guys.