Virtual Entrepreneur

As the cost for a full gene map approaches $1,000, the opportunity increases for business owners to get in on the genome mapping industry.

Entrepreneur.com:
Harvard geneticist George Church, 54, is co-founder of the Human Genome Project and the Personal Genome Project. More than anyone in his field, he’s helped open up DNA mapping technology to the masses. Although most DNA startups, including some he has advised, often focus on less expensive “genotyping” that can test for a limited number of known traits, Church has been a proponent of making blueprints of entire gene sets available at affordable prices. Until recently, that seemed like a pipe dream. Only a handful of people on the planet have had all their genes mapped. It’s been a six- and seven-figure proposition. But as Church points out here, it’s starting to happen, and it could be a boon for biotech.

Entrepreneur.com: Given the economy, how will all these DNA biotech companies fare?
George Church: They’ll be fire sales for awhile until they stabilize. But how many fields of technology are undergoing that kind of exponential change? Almost none. It’s like with computers: People never thought of the internet as a use when they first came out. Eventually people totally tuned in. With genotyping we might still be blind to the killer app. It’s not just medical uses, it’s ancestry, it’s applications to help make bio-fuels, and it’s applications for making lifestyle and dating decisions. DNA technology is going to be as diverse as personal computers are today.

Is genotyping tapping into the seemingly growing narcissism industry that includes everything from luxury brands to cosmetic surgery?

Church: Narcissistic is a loaded term. We’re concerned about ourselves and our families–we worry about the roads in our neighborhood rather than the roads in the rest of the world, yes. But I think people should be interested from a scientific standpoint. Moonwalks shouldn’t be as interesting as knowing about your own genes. It’s not a huge leap of faith to think the level of excitement we had about space exploration should be on steroids when it comes to people’s own DNA. It’s just a matter of bringing the price of testing down.

How will crowdsourcing help DNA knowledge evolve? Continue reading.

Also Read

1. Best Blogs For Entrepreneurial-Minded Moms Virtual Entrepreneur blog has been featured on Executive MBA...

2 Responses to “Is DNA Mapping In Your Entrepreneurial DNA?”