An online store to get information about your genes will make it cheap and easy to learn more about its risks and predispositions to health.
While driving and listening to national public radio one day, Justin Kao heard about the discovery of a "sweet tooth gene" that makes him more prone to craving sweets. "Oh, my God," thought Kao, who has always loved cookies. "I'd pay $ 5 to find out if I had that."
Kao hopes millions of others will be so eager to spend a few bucks for the tidbits revealed in their DNA. He is co-founder of Helix, a San Francisco-based company that last summer earned more than $ 100 million in a quest to create the first "app store" to obtain genetic information.
Kao hopes millions of others will be so eager to spend a few bucks for the tidbits revealed in their DNA. He is co-founder of Helix, a San Francisco-based company that last summer earned more than $ 100 million in a quest to create the first "app store" to obtain genetic information.
DNA App Store
Our genomes contain information about our health risks, our physical traits, and with whom we are related. However, apart from the ancestry tests that provide a limited genetic snapshot, there is no mass market for DNA data. Helix is ??a bet of the former employer of Kao, the acquisition firm Warburg Pincus, and Illumina, the leading manufacturer of ultrafast DNA sequencing machines, that what is missing is the right business model.
Helix's idea is to collect a sample of anyone who buys a DNA application, sequence and analyze the clients' genes, and then digitize the findings so they can be accessed by software developers who want to sell other applications. Helix calls the idea "sequence once, consult often." (The company says that customers will find these apps on websites and possibly in Android and Apple app stores.)
With its ties to Illumina, Helix thinks it can decode the most important part of a person's genome - the 20,000 genes and some other bits - at a cost of about $ 100, about a fifth of what it costs other companies. That is why Helix can afford its second gambit: to generate and store this type of data for all clients, even if they initially only make a specific genetic query, as if they have the sweet tooth gene or a risk for a certain disease. Maybe two guys in a garage will write a $ 10 application that shows you the seniority in 10 years or the celebrity with which you are most closely related. Kao says the tactic will make genetic information available to consumers "at an unprecedented low entry price."
The engine to power the application store is being built one mile from Illumina's San Diego headquarters in a building where workers were still folding veneer and placing tiles in January. Several kilometers of data cables connected through the roof will connect to a large farm of sequencing machines, capable of processing the DNA of one million samples a year. Illumina CEO Jay Flatley, also president of Helix, said it could be the largest sequencing center anywhere.
Helix plans to launch the store this year or next. Customers will control their data by deciding who sees it. There is even a "nuclear button" to delete every A, G, C and T. But the key details are still being solved. Will people be able to download their DNA information and take it elsewhere? Probably, though they might pay extra for the privilege.
One company that works with Helix is ??Good Start Genetics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company that offers preconception testing. These DNA tests tell prospective parents if they share the risk of transmitting a serious genetic disease, such as cystic fibrosis. Jeffrey Luber, director of business development at Good Start, says he hopes to reach out to a wider audience with an application that may report some major risks. As with browsing on Amazon, he thinks, people will discover things they "did not know they needed, but that [are] addressed to them, and that they want."
An imminent question mark is the US Food and Drug Administration, which has kept a close watch on genetic testing and will decide how much information Helix can reveal. Currently, says Keith Stewart, director of the Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine, most applications that return real medical information - your likelihood of cancer, say, not just how much Neanderthal you have in your DNA - will require the approval of The agency or at least one doctor in the loop.
"The bottom line is going to be: What are the regulatory constraints on information that is really useful?" Says Mirza Cifric, CEO of Veritas Genetics. His company has been offering since last fall to sequence the entire genome of a person and is creating its own application to explore the data, with a button to get a FaceTime appointment with a genetic counselor. Cifric has not decided whether to create an application with Helix, but says he shares his core belief: "The genome is an asset you have for life, and you will do it again."
Helix's idea is to collect a sample of anyone who buys a DNA application, sequence and analyze the clients' genes, and then digitize the findings so they can be accessed by software developers who want to sell other applications. Helix calls the idea "sequence once, consult often." (The company says that customers will find these apps on websites and possibly in Android and Apple app stores.)
With its ties to Illumina, Helix thinks it can decode the most important part of a person's genome - the 20,000 genes and some other bits - at a cost of about $ 100, about a fifth of what it costs other companies. That is why Helix can afford its second gambit: to generate and store this type of data for all clients, even if they initially only make a specific genetic query, as if they have the sweet tooth gene or a risk for a certain disease. Maybe two guys in a garage will write a $ 10 application that shows you the seniority in 10 years or the celebrity with which you are most closely related. Kao says the tactic will make genetic information available to consumers "at an unprecedented low entry price."
The engine to power the application store is being built one mile from Illumina's San Diego headquarters in a building where workers were still folding veneer and placing tiles in January. Several kilometers of data cables connected through the roof will connect to a large farm of sequencing machines, capable of processing the DNA of one million samples a year. Illumina CEO Jay Flatley, also president of Helix, said it could be the largest sequencing center anywhere.
Helix plans to launch the store this year or next. Customers will control their data by deciding who sees it. There is even a "nuclear button" to delete every A, G, C and T. But the key details are still being solved. Will people be able to download their DNA information and take it elsewhere? Probably, though they might pay extra for the privilege.
One company that works with Helix is ??Good Start Genetics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company that offers preconception testing. These DNA tests tell prospective parents if they share the risk of transmitting a serious genetic disease, such as cystic fibrosis. Jeffrey Luber, director of business development at Good Start, says he hopes to reach out to a wider audience with an application that may report some major risks. As with browsing on Amazon, he thinks, people will discover things they "did not know they needed, but that [are] addressed to them, and that they want."
An imminent question mark is the US Food and Drug Administration, which has kept a close watch on genetic testing and will decide how much information Helix can reveal. Currently, says Keith Stewart, director of the Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine, most applications that return real medical information - your likelihood of cancer, say, not just how much Neanderthal you have in your DNA - will require the approval of The agency or at least one doctor in the loop.
"The bottom line is going to be: What are the regulatory constraints on information that is really useful?" Says Mirza Cifric, CEO of Veritas Genetics. His company has been offering since last fall to sequence the entire genome of a person and is creating its own application to explore the data, with a button to get a FaceTime appointment with a genetic counselor. Cifric has not decided whether to create an application with Helix, but says he shares his core belief: "The genome is an asset you have for life, and you will do it again."
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