In the future, as more and more people become genetically sequenced consumers

In the future, as more and more people become genetically sequenced consumers, vast amounts of data are collected and the personal medical field may no longer be familiar to us.

On a Sunday morning in October, at the home of Wollongong, Australia, Matthew Berriman spat in a bag after breakfast, covered it, put it in prepaid envelopes, and dropped it into the mailbox at the door.

The letter arrived in the Americas 10 days later and appeared in a lab at the 23andMe in California State Mountain View, a gene technology company. Soon after, Matthew received a confirmation message from 23andMe that he had received a sample. 2 weeks later, Matthew received another email: Your Genetic test results are ready.

Matthew opened the 23andMe Web site and logged in, and saw his own "human code"-The genetic information of more than 1 million loci in the genome, and analysis of the information, including predictions of the prevalence of 259 diseases and ancestral analysis.

This test only needs 99 dollars. Matthew is one of 23andme40 's million users, and the start-up company, founded in 2007, has never pushed genetic sequencing as close to the average as today.

Fly into the home of ordinary people

It's been 10 years since the first time the human genome was captured, and the plan cost 2.7 billion dollars for 13 years. It is thought to be an equivalent to the lunar mission, but for ordinary people, genetic sequencing is as remote as the moon. Over the past 10 years, however, the cost of sequencing has been creeping down even more than Moore's Law, which is popular in science and technology.

The latest "genetic sequencing" into the public eye is an article published in the New York Times by Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, who announced that she had surgically removed both sides of the breast. "My doctor estimated that I had a 87% chance of developing breast cancer." Julie wrote in the article. The estimate was based on her genetic tests, which cost about 3000 dollars, and she tested 2 genes.

Even the complete genome test has been quite expensive. In June this year, Carol Carroll, a British observer, made a genetic sequencing of 5000 dollars for Iloumi in Santiago, and included an ipad for downloading sequencing results. 3 years ago, a gene-testing company quoted a price of 35,000 dollars and said it was a "preferential price". Apple CEO Steve Jobs conducted a whole genome sequencing in his lifetime, at a price of 100,000 dollars, and took about 4 weeks to complete. Further forward, this number is not to mention.

Predictably, genome sequencing will become very simple and easy to obtain, with prices falling below 1000 dollars. This change is driven by Illumina, life science and technology as the representative of the gene sequencing equipment company, on the basis of the 23andMe as the wave of start-up companies really bring genetic sequencing into the lives of ordinary people.

Business model Innovation

Prior to 23andMe, most of the business models in the field of gene technology relied on direct selling of equipment or direct sales of inspection services, which led to high sequencing prices. And, for ordinary people, the results of thousands of of dollars ' worth of tests are confused, and doctors are unable to decipher them. These keep most people out of the gene sequencing gate, so that the current market size is only 1.5 billion dollars.

Startups, including 23andMe, AncestryDNA and Britainsdna, cut prices to a minimum of $99 trillion, rapidly expanding the populations willing to carry out genetic sequencing.

23andMe, in fact, is not the first price can be so low. Initially it offered a price of 999 dollars, then reduced to 299 dollars, until the 4th round of financing at the end of last year to create the lowest 99 dollars. The effect of the price reduction is obvious, according to 23andMe President Andy Pecs, the number of users before the price reduction is 180,000, after the price of a short period of 9 months after the number of users doubled.

The reason why prices are so low is that they are innovative in business models.

Whenever someone introduces 23andMe, it always mentions its relationship with Google. The founder and CEO of Annie Vosiki, a company founded in 2007, is the wife of one of Google's founders, Sergey. This, of course, brought a financing convenience for the start-up (Brin invested 3.4 million dollars in his personal capacity, Google Ventures, the company's investment firm, invested a total of $11.7 million trillion), which also spurred other venture-capital agencies to favor the 23andMe. More importantly, Google's experience in data storage and processing can help 23andMe technically.

In an interview with "Fast Company", 23andMe board member Patrick Chung directly referred to 23andMe as "Google in the area of personal health care". If you can get enough data. Therefore, the 23andMe through financing so that they have the ability to reduce prices, so as to expand the user base, access to massive data, and ultimately to the genetic sequencing results to serve the vast number of consumers, to open up a greater commercial space.

Data analysis is a problem

In the field of gene sequencing, bottlenecks are no longer cost, but explanations of results.

Although the secrets of human genetics and health exist in these data, they do not make sense if they are not understood. Just like learning a language, we need to use context to build a model to understand the meaning of each word. In genetic science, acquiring genetic data is the first step, and the next step is to contrast the data with the phenomenon.

When a person receives his or her own test results on 23andMe, he is asked if he is willing to participate in the research program. If you attend, 23andMe will ask questions about health status, disease history, and family genetics. So far, 23andMe users have answered more than 2 billion questions, more than the number of questions and answers on Yahoo's question and Quora.

Based on these data, 23andMe can provide more accurate disease prediction and ancestral analysis, in which the prediction of disease is truly expected to improve personal health.

In 2008, Brin was found carrying a gene called LRRK2 after 23andMe tests, which increased his likelihood of Parkinson's disease to 30%~75%, with a general probability of 1%. Based on the results, Brin began to exercise and drink more coffee, both of which were thought to reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease.

For 23andMe, the goal now is to get more users and information about a particular disease. For Parkinson's, 23andMe provides a free test kit for anyone diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Currently, they have acquired more than 10,000 genetic data from Parkinson's, creating the world's largest community of Parkinson's patients in the field of genetic research.

What industries will change?

In every aspect of the medical profession, the insurance industry is considered one of the most likely to be altered by genetic sequencing.

From 23andMe practice, it can be seen that the core of gene technology is the analysis of data, the use of large data for personal health prediction, the core of insurance is also forecast. The combination of big data and insurance is not whimsical and has been practiced, one of which is the "conceive fund" service in Glow, the latest pioneering project of PayPal founder Max Levchin.

It works in a simple way: Couples who have difficulty conceiving apply for the eligibility of the Fund and, once approved, deposit 50 dollars into the fund for 10 consecutive months. If, after 10 months, Glow has not been able to help you conceive, the fund will finance your subsequent inspection and treatment. According to Mike Huang, the amount of funding will be between 20,000 ~4 million dollars. If you succeed in pregnancy, the money you deposit will be used to fund other users.

Obviously, the so-called fund is actually the essence of insurance. In the words of CEO Mike Huang, "We want it to be the most popular insurance in the world." "In areas that are not covered by the traditional insurance industry, startups use big data and the Internet to create new space for imagination." It is conceivable that large data based on genetic sequencing will bring more energy.

Another possible opportunity is to personalize the diagnosis and eventually conquer a terminal disease such as cancer.

Although his life was not saved by the "personalized care" that Mr Jobs had done in his lifetime, he said, "I am either the first person in the world to get rid of cancer, or the last person to die from cancer." ”

There are already a number of companies that have focused on this area, such as a biotech company called Foundation Dentistry, which has received investments from Bill Gates and Google Ventures, and has made a successful IPO this September.

In fact, traditional pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and other large medical organizations have shown keen interest. In the report of the Fast Company, the head of an advisory body named Luminary Labs said that every day people from major pharmaceutical companies sought cooperation with 23andMe.

In the future, as more and more people become genetically sequenced consumers, more and more data are collected, and the personal medical field may no longer be familiar to us.