Inside the Forgotten X Prize—the One That Can Save Your Life

popularmechanics.com

9 points·iamelgringo··5 comments

I wonder if the bioinformatics will have caught up by the time this X-prize is won -- right now, an entire sequenced genome tells surprisingly little useful information.

http://www.genetic-future.com/2008/04/watsons-sequence-gloom...

Sounds like a good idea for a startup. Really, what they're talking about doing with that data is essentially running a diff on people's genome's, right? Sounds simple enough. ;)

To do it right, you would need access to large sets of genomes with corresponding medical histories. No one has ever really gotten enough data together to be useful yet.

It is an untouched market though, someone will do it eventually and genomic medicine will suddenly be very useful. I would do it if I had more capital. Also, it would require competing with a public project: http://www.personalgenomes.org/participate.html. I'm not sure how well funded that project actually is, it won't be feasible for at least 5 years.

...or torpedo your insurance. They'll find some way around the anti-genetic-discrimination laws once they calculate how much they can increase profits -- up to and including lobbying to repeal those laws. They aren't set in stone, after all.

Of course, it's only in the USA that this is even an issue.

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