While driving and listening to National Public Radio one day, Justin Kao heard about the discovery of a “sweet tooth gene” that makes you more likely to crave sweets. “Oh my God,” thought Kao, who has always loved cookies. “I would pay $5 to know if I had that.”
Kao is hoping that millions of other people will be just as eager to spend a few bucks for tidbits revealed in their DNA. He is a cofounder of Helix, a San Francisco–based company that last summer secured more than $100 million in a quest to create the first “app store” for genetic information.
DNA App Store
- BreakthroughA new business model for DNA sequencing that will make genetic information widely accessible online.
- Why It MattersYour genome determines a great deal about you, including your likelihood of getting certain diseases.
- Key Players in Consumer Genomics– Helix
– Illumina
– Veritas Genetics
Our genomes hold information about our health risks, our physical traits, and whom we’re related to. Yet aside from ancestry tests that provide a limited genetic snapshot, there’s not a mass market for DNA data. Helix is a bet by Kao’s former employer, the buyout firm Warburg Pincus, and Illumina, the leading manufacturer of ultrafast DNA sequencing machines, that what’s been missing is the right business model.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600769/10-breakthrough-technologies-2016-dna-app-store/
