[h2o-discuss] Genetic Codes - Open & Available

["Tuyet A. Ngoc Tran" <tatn2000@yahoo.com>]

Hi - just taking a minuscule break fr.my school
stuffs:

I've enclosed a short snippet of an article from the
New York Times which, I think follows an earlier
posting by John Wilbanks.  The article is  also
thought provoking in that how much privacy is the
individual genetic profile entitled to as s/he submits
personal info. towards the purpose of finding genetic
disposition of specific diseases?
  
It is an open database sort-to-speak for anyone to
utilize targeted information. While it is useful for
pharmaceutical companies to learn more for its R&D
however, there's a tiny concern of consumers' health
profiles being used for other than the original
intents.  

Tuyet 
__________________________________                    
                             
September 20, 1999 New York Times
Surfing the Human Genome
Databases of Genetic Code Are Moving to the Web 

By LAWRENCE M. FISHER

SAN FRANCISCO -- Call it an end-of-the-century
            business case study. 

"Pangea Systems Inc. is a small but leading company in
"bioinformatics," a hot new field that combines the
two
keystone technologies of the 1990s -- computing and
biotechnology. But its products are expensive and
difficult for mortals to use, which limits Pangea's
potential market and reduces the prospects for a
public
stock offering. 

This week Pangea, which is based in Oakland, Calif.,
intend to begin a shakedown test of DoubleTwist.com, a
new Web site intended to make online genetic and
biological research fast, easy and available to any
amateur or professional biologist. While the test
phase is available only to faculty and students at
Stanford University, the site is scheduled to go live
for general use in December. 

The DoubleTwist site, whose name is a play on the
double-helix structure of DNA, holds the near-term
promise of lifting Pangea above the pack of
competitors chasing the business opportunities in
bioinformatics. But other companies may not be far
behind. And the implications go beyond the interests
of professional biologists and biotechnology
executives. 
As more of the arcane secrets of genetics and
molecular
biology become available to the modemed masses, some
industry executives foresee the day when an educated
consumer might take a CD-ROM containing a laboratory's
rendering of his or her genetic profile, and combine
it with a Web surf through gene libraries to determine
the person's predisposition toward adverse drug
reactions, for example, or for Alzheimer's disease,
colon cancer or other afflictions that might
eventually be treatable through gene therapy. 

To promote its name and capabilities, Pangea plans to
let individuals who make only casual use of the site
have access to its software and data base at no
charge.
Heavy users and corporations may obtain licenses to
pay for access on a sliding fee scale -- which could
run tens of thousands of dollars a year, but would
still be
significantly less than the $500,000 or more that
Pangea now charges big pharmaceutical companies to buy
its software outright. "

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/09/biztech/articles/20gene.html


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