Personal Genomics is Dead. Long live Decentralized Personal Genomics.
It looks like 23andme is in trouble. As CNN Business reports:
“Share value has dropped a stunning 96% since its peak share price of $17.65 in February 2021. Shares of 23andMe are now priced at about $0.70, and in November the company was informed that it was in violation of Nasdaq rules that require a company to maintain a stock price above $1. That means it has about three months to bring the price up or risk being delisted”
The business model for 23andMe or Ancestry.com, is to cross sell your data to further develop medicine — better known as ‘precision medicine’ in the pharmaceutical industry’. These deals were known to be highly lucrative for these organisations and revealed their true business models allowing them to grow revenues from the cautious millions into the billions. As more people have caught wind of the ever-increasing value of DNA data, more deals and hacks have occurred from and into the databases of direct to consumer genetic companies.
We think this model is no longer sustainable. The public seems to be agreeing.
GenomesDAO is a genomic data security company that democratizes and decentralizes genomics in Healthcare. We have previously talked about how ‘you’ need to be in control of ‘your most personal data’
GenomesDAO provides the highest level of privacy and security for its users’ genetic data. It uses AMD SEV-ES and blockchain technology to secure genomic data, allowing users to maintain control over their genetic information. Users can choose who has access to their data and for what purpose, potentially offering more privacy than traditional genetic testing services.
GenomesDAO provides users with more control over their genetic data. Users can decide if they want to share their data and with whom, such as researchers or pharmaceutical companies, possibly even monetizing their data by giving consent for its use in research.
With a model that emphasises user consent for data sharing, GenomesDAO has built a platform that can contribute to ethical research practices, ensuring that individuals are aware of and agree to how their genetic information is used.
By giving users control over their data, GenomesDAO aims to reduce the risk of unauthorised access or misuse of genetic information, a concern that has been raised regarding companies that store large amounts of genetic data.
We have built a way to create anonymous, auditable, incentivised, repeat consent genomic queries. Our beta queries were based on the ‘COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative’. This initiative brings together the human genetics community to generate, share, and analyse data to learn the genetic determinants of COVID-19 susceptibility, severity, and outcomes.
More than a decade ago, we watched Anne Wojcicki at SXSW tell us that “Your DNA is yours”. Today we are told we cannot download it.
GenomesDAO aims to secure 1 billion genomes. Do you think we should allow 23andme users to upload their data to our platform?
There is a vote happening on our snapshot right now to see if we should. You can vote here if you hold veGNOME
If you have any questions about this or anything else — join over 2500 people in the Discord: https://discord.com/invite/bYvqcNDrvC or jump into the Telegram group: https://t.me/+TblGWLX6Nul3ClGw
