GlaxoSmithKline has invested $300 million into 23andMe. GSK and 23andMe will partner to develop new medicines. They will split costs and profits equally. 23andMe raised $250 million at a $1.75 billion last September. This deal likely values 23andMe at over $2 billion.
23andMe has 5 million customers who have sent in samples of their spit that are analyzed to identify genetic changes at 700,000 different locations in their genomes.
A million Americans have Parkinson’s disease. About 10,000 have Parkinson’s caused by LRRK2. Glaxo is working on a LRRK2 drug, but would need to test 100 Parkinson’s patients to find one LRRK2 test subject.
23andMe already has 250 Parkinson’s patients with the LRRK2 gene variant who have agreed to be re-contacted for clinical trials. This could allow Glaxo to develop its drug much, much faster. Glaxo would not need to perform 25,000 screening tests.
Comparing people with different versions of the same gene will allow Glaxo to get an early idea over whether the changes a drug is even seeking to make in the body would even work.
Facebook Sells Personal Data
Global advertising campaigns can use Facebook data to target customers.
IF 20 percent of the total 2,130,000,000 global users are targeted by one ad campaign for a token amount of $0.20 per user data, the amount of money to be made comes to $85.2 million. If there were 1,000 such targeted ad campaigns source these data points from Facebook then the revenue would increase to $85 billion. Segregate the ad campaigns further at different locations, different costs, and different engagement levels, the numbers will shoot up significantly.
Facebook made $40 billion in revenue in 2017, more than 99% of which came from digital advertisements.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease nearly 4 years ago, at age 51. I had a stooped posture, tremors, muscle stiffness, sleeplessness, and slow movement. I was placed on Sinemet for 7 months and then Sifrol and rotigotine were introduced which replaced the Sinemet but I had to stop due to side effects. I was in denial for a while as there is no history of PD in my family. I also used amantadine, and physical therapy to strengthen muscles all failed. I decided to adopt a more natural approach and started on Parkinson’s Herbal formula from Organic Herbal Clinic, the Parkinson’s natural formula immensely helped my condition, i had a total recovery from PD with this natural herbal formula treatment. Organic Herbal Clinic official web site www . organicherbalclinic . com. I feel alive again and my attitude is extremely positive.
Relatively speaking, it will be easy enough to engineer a virus to attack a specific and singular individual.
DNA assassins will now begin to be a thing to fear.
Side note. Have you read Frank Herbert’s’ “White Plague”? Really surprised it isn’t a movie yet.
Well if you are postulating a future where the police just kill anyone on the basis of falling into a population of suspects, then I think you’ve got a lot more to worry about than whether they are using DNA to determine those suspect populations.
Or, “They” release an “Executioner” virus, targeting the unique genetic markers found in crime scene DNA, designed to invade that ones flesh alone.
Twins, though… Hmm…
I guess you can’t kill the suspect. Maybe just turn their skin dayglo orange. That would be reversible, and individuals-of-interest would stick out well enough.
It might be a problem, until it becomes common.
If you are the only employee of your company where the police have questioned your employer because of suspicious DNA, then yes, that’s an issue.
By the time 25% of the company has been “under suspicion” at some point, nobody cares any more and it’s just ignored.
So a very huge database that is already able to be commercialised is worth more than a much smaller database that is not yet able to be commercialised.
Like someone in 1800 finding that the coal mines of England are worth more than the sticky black rock oil leaking from the ground in Arabia.
Wow, there must be a gene for conspiracy theororists.
It’s really such a small meal they take from any individuals data. Mere sardines every one of us.
I’d gladly pay 500 NOK a year to become a ghost to the machine.
“Somebody” has a “C” nucleotide at rs850807 in their Prader-Willi region of chromosome 15!
EDITED: Bio-marker for Paranoia 😉
We have created products that use this imperfect “knowledge” to trace family trees and to find and prosecute potential criminals. One is for “fun” and one can catch true criminals but sometimes ruinslives of innocent people. My mother decides to buy cheap DNA family tree tests for my wife and daughter … a just for fun Christmas present. Test come back and surprise, we are 40% Swedish. I suggest that this result goes against our written history … and that there is no reason why this company can do what it says in its ads. A year goes by and then they send an update that we are now 0% Swedish. So what is really going on?
Possibility they don’t even use the samples and just use addresses and names to suggest areas of origins.
Possibly this is a big drift net to voluntarily collect DNA from the population for the purposes of resale to governments, employers and insurance companies.
Maybe you are suspicious and don’t send Grandma’s “just for fun” gift in. Think you are safe … nope.
It is easy to triangulate your family’s profile to create a profile of you … no sample needed.
Police agencies have used family DNA to draw suspicion to all family members for a crime based on a DNA match. Imagine the police coming to your employer to talk about you for a crime that a family member may have committed. Some jobs will be forever compromised by this …
Eventually these “for fun” DNA samples will be processed into risk ratings just like a credit score and tagged to your SSN. Soon
your genetics maybe, not mine. Too many telomeres cut off.
Genetics is not a mature market. Search, social, and advertising are. Genetics could be worth more once it matures.
Encourage people to read the comments about this here. Monetizing your genes. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18831370