DNA App Software

There is a part of you that you’ve never met before!

DNA App software and online store for genetic data will not only make the process of  DNA sequencing cheaper, but of course could revolutionized everything we never imagining,since everyone have possibility to know his or her health risks and predispositions, with these knowledge health workers such as doctors and geneticists may afford to avert many diseases just before manifestation. Thank to the human genomic project (HGP) that has finished sequencing some DNA libraries. The complete sequenced data in (HGP) will make this intriguing idea of developing genetic cloud system and application software.  Our genomes contains information about our health risks(phathogenesis), our physical traits(phenotype), and whom we’re related to like ancestry (genotype). Dr. Justin Kao the cofounder of Helix biotech ,a San Francisco based company that last summer secured more than $100 million in a quest to create the first ever “app store” for genetic information. Helix company has team up with another biotechnology corporate called Illumina,the leading manufacturer of ultrafast DNA sequencing machines.

Helix and Illumina have some ideas to collect a spit sample from anyone who buys a DNA app, sequence and analyze the customers’ genes, and then digitize the findings so they can be accessed by software developers who want to sell other apps. Helix calls this idea “sequence once, query often.” The company says customers will find these apps on websites and possibly in their Android and Apple app stores. With its ties to Illumina, Helix thinks it can eble to decode the entire person’s genome about 20,000 genes and a few other bits at just lower cost of about $100, about one-fifth of what it costs other companies. If Helix spent less in such project could afford its second gambit: to generate and store this type of data for all customers, even if they initially make only one specific genetic query.The engine to power the app store is being assembled a mile from Illumina’s San Diego headquarters, in a building where workmen were still bending sheet metal and laying floor tiles in January. Several miles of data cables strung through the ceiling will be connected to a large farm of sequencing machines, able to process the DNA from a million samples a year. Illumina’s  CEO,
Jay Flatley, also chairman of Helix, has said it could be the largest sequencing center ever on planet.

Helix plans to launch the store this year or next. Customers will control their data by deciding who sees it. There’s even a “nuclear button” to erase every A, G, C, and T. But key details are still being sorted out. Will people be able to download their DNA information and take it elsewhere? Probably, yes though they might pay extra for the privilege. One company that already lending assistance to Helix is Good Start Genetics based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that offers pre-conception testing. These DNA tests tell parents-to-be if they share a risk for passing on a serious genetic condition, such as cystic fibrosis. Jeffrey Luber, Good Start’s head of business development, says it hopes to reach a larger audience with an app that can report a few important risks.

A looming question mark is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has kept close tabs on gene tests and will decide how much information Helix apps can reveal. Right now, says Keith Stewart, director of the Center for Individualized Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, most apps that return real medical information for people and reveal the chance of cancer, say, not just how much Neanderthal is in your DNA would need agency approval, or at least a doctor in the loop. “The bottom line is : What are the regulatory constraints on information that is truly useful.
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Further sources:

Helix, Illumina, Veritas Genetics

Credit: Given to Javier Jaén and Senior Editor Antonio Regalado (MIT Biomedicines review)
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