Amy Harmon, a science writer for the New York Times, writes “Gene Map Becomes a Luxury Item,” an article about Knome (know-me), a sequencing company that will return a customer’s entire genomic sequence for $350,000. Knome was co-founded by Harvard professor George Church, who also directs the Personal Genome Project.
Dan Stoicescu is a retired millionaire who has recently become Knome’s first customer, and only the second person in the world to purchase his entire genomic sequence. According to Dr. Stoicescu, he understands that as of today there is little that his sequence will reveal, but he plans to compare the results of new studies to his genome daily, “like a stock portfolio.”
The article also reveals that Illumina is planning “to sell whole genome sequencing to the ‘rich and famous market’ this year,” says chief executive Jay Flatley. This probably won’t pose much of a problem to Knome – the founders have stated that they are only “offering 20 individuals the opportunity to participate in [their] initial launch phase.”
Turns out that Jonathan Eisen, a member of the DNA Network, was interviewed for this piece by Amy Harmon, but his quotes didn’t make it into the article.