Monday 31 March 2014

News from San Diego

Well, its the start of baseball season in the US, and my beloved San Diego Padres just beat the hated Los Angeles Dodgers in their first game of the season. Yay!

While trying to get a news article about this game from the San Diego Union Tribune, I coincidentally came cross the latest genomic news. Craig Venter (who is famous for many things- sequencing the first bacterial genome, creating the first synthetic bacterium, sequencing his genome as the human genome, sequencing his poodle's genome, sequencing the world's oceans from his yacht, etc) has just announced raising $70 million to form a new genomics company- Human Longevity Inc. This company will be sequencing a hundred thousand human genomes each year as well as sequencing microbial communities living in/on people.

This should bring us closer to personalized medicine, where healthcare decisions can be tailored according to a patients genetics (and potentially the makeup of their microbial communities).


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