Consumers will soon be able to sell or rent their DNA to scientists who are trying to fight diseases as different as dementia, lupus and leukemia.
Bio-brokers want to collect everything from someone’s 23andMe and Ancestry.com gene data to fully sequenced genomes.
The data would be sold or rented to biomedical institutes, universities and pharmaceutical companies, generating money for consumers who share their genetic secrets.
The roundup is mostly led by Luna DNA of Solana Beach and Nebula Genomics of San Francisco, startups that are still figuring out how much a person would be paid for their contribution.
It’s part of the booming bio-economy, where so-called “sequencing subsidies” are starting to emerge.
Scientists say they need enormous amounts of genetic data from across different ethnic, racial and age groups, and different genders, to develop diagnostics and drugs.
Additional story at: The San Diego Union-Tribune: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/sd-me-genes-consumerguide-20180514-story.html
(photo/its.gov)
