Biological Domains & Big Data - How Genetic Data Will Force Health Records to Evolve

Biological Domains - The Internet of Human Beings as the New Big Data from Alice Rathjen - DNA Guide

The 2011 DNA Guide "Innovation Catalyst Awards!!!"

Most awards are created by those on top and handed down. This award comes from the bottom-up. It's one entrepreneurs attempt to thank all the wonderful people I met this past year and recognize their dedication to make a contribution to the world. So often innovation recognition goes to CEO's and lead investors - forgetting those who contribute to the ecosystem by being welcoming, curious and collaborative.

Criteria for the DNA Guide "2011 Innovation Catalyst Awards" is being BRILLIANT, KIND and FUN to interact with. If you don't know these folks... be sure to look for them next time you're at Ted or the Computer Museum in Mountain View. They're wonderful. Here are the true instigators of innovation who inspired me this past year:

Holley Abrams MD NASA Ames Research Center @holleyabrams
Alexandra Basford Beijing Genomics Institute, GigaScience
Vijay Chandru UNESCO
Angie Chang Women 2.0 @thisgirlangie
James Clement Androcyte @clementlawyer
Alex de Winter, Mohr Davidow Ventures
Jack Dangermond, ESRI
Jovianna DiCarlo, International mHealth Standards Consortium @imhsc
Lizzie Dunklee Health 2.0 @drytownlizzie
Scott Edmunds, Beijing Genomics Institute, GigaScience @ SCEdmunds
Jonathan Drori RBG Kew Enterprises Ltd @jondrori
Peter Francis, Casey Eye Institute
Richard Gallagher, Hopeful Monster
Kathryn Gorges Social Marketing Diva ley@socialMktgDiva
Steven Gullans Excel Venture Management @sgullans
Rebecca Hemenway FitGenes Consulting @rhemenway
Andrew Hessel Pink Army Cooperative @andrewhessel
Kevin Horgan, Soligenix
Tim Hunkapiller Discovery Biosciences
Salim Ismail, Singularity U
Reese Jones Singularity University
Steven Johnson, Ctuit Software
Hugh Keegan, ESRI
Bruce Klein Singularity U
Daniel Kraft Stanford Medical School, Futuremed SU @daniel_kraft
Frederick Lee, MD, MPH , P4 Medicine Institute @fleeMD
Deborah Marshall, Sidley LLP
Kathryn Myronuk Singularity University
Lesa Mitchell Kauffman Foundation @lesamitchell
Ayanna Monteverdi,Mendelspod
Kevin Noble, Genentech
Sharon Olexy Bytes2Insights
Jannick B Pedersen FranklinCovey @jannickBP
John Pfeffer, Pfeffer Capital
Melek Pulatkonak Microsoft @orientalist
Eric Schadt, Institute of Genomics
Abdul R Shaikh, National Cancer Institute
Marc Tarpenning Whiteboard Accelerator
Brad Templeton Singularity U, EFF
Theral Timpson , Mendelspod
Vivek Wadhwa, UC Berkeley
Antoaneta Vladimirova NextBio @antoanetavlad


Yes... this is an arbitrary award, but if you're on this list you can ask me for a favor down the road if by chance I end up wildly successful. Or, just print out this graphic and put it on your wall (we're still a lean startup).

For those who were kind to me last year "DNA Catalyst Awards 2010" http://dnatimes.blogspot.com/2011/01/year-in-life-of-entrepreneur-2010.html thanks again.

Alice Rathjen
Founder, DNA Guide

Government Subsidy of the Genetic Information Marketplace

One of the more recent major government investments in the genetic information marketplace is the $25 million grant awarded to Kaiser and UCSF http://bit.ly/735YKt . In this model individuals altruistically donate their DNA to Kaiser and have it mined with their medical records. As a non-profit with an excellent reputation for providing quality care... Kaiser is a good steward for this type of study. However, as far as I can tell, Kaiser and UCSF appear to have all rights to monetize the data with no information transparency to either participants or researchers outside of Kaiser and UCSF.

In our current genetic information marketplace US taxpayers pay for genetic research with often private entities retaining most all the economic rights associated with the data. This model has its place as a form of government subsidy of industry … but do we really want this to be the dominant genetic research model moving forward?

What the heck… why not have the government subsidize direct to consumer genome services instead? Then patient advocacy groups could organize around populations to facilitate genetic research and the “patents” around genetic interpretation could then be owned in part by those non-profits which serve the population most impacted by a particular disease. Wouldn’t this model result in lower overall costs for both personal genetic information and health care in the long run?

Another model would be for consumers to pay upfront for their raw genetic data, manage it separate from their medical records and be compensated for sharing in the risks associated with developing genetic research http://www.dnaguide.com , http://www.dnaclassifieds.com . Such a model might seem out of control but in fact it’s more consistent with an actual genetic information marketplace.

Perhaps all the arm waving regarding direct to consumer genetic testing has more to do with the fight over how genetic information will be subsidized and monetized rather than genuine concern over actually protecting consumers and their genetic information.

Alice Rathjen
CEO, Founder DNA Guide and DNA Classifieds

Posted via web from DNA Guide