Soon, £647 ( $1,000 ) Will Map Your Genes
What began at Cambridge University, with the 1953 discovery by two Brits (one a woman), a Kiwi, and an American that DNA takes the form of a spiral helix – two interwoven spiral 'staircases' formed of paired bases of four fundamental organic molecules – adenine and thymine, guanine and cytosine - continued with the great British and American genome sequencing project of the 1990s and has now, if the Wall Street Journal report is correct, led to the £647 ($1,000) genome sequencing of your personal genes.
It seems to me that we'll want to know more about what we actually learn, and how much we want to learn it before plunking down the cash. It also occurs to me that if this sequencing takes off, it will be another example of a British discovery making money for people outside Britain.
| Permalink
| 
