Burn your genes on CD -- for $500,000

An anonymous reader writes "Venter says he plans to offer the service, with the goal of burning individual human's entire DNA sequences onto shiny compact discs. It will cost about $500,000 per person, says the entrepreneurial scientist who helped decode the human genome. "

Put one in space

[B1ackDragon]

This is the sort of thing I'd like to see put on a satalite flying through space, for possible future contact with intelligent species. Then they would have a good chance to study other lifeforms, even if we are long gone.

Re:Will it fit?

[NewbieV]

From the Human Genome Project FAQ: [ornl.gov]

Q. How big is the human genome?

The human genome is made up of DNA, which has four different chemical building blocks. These are called bases and abbreviated A, T, C, and G. In the human genome, about 3 billion bases are arranged along the chromosomes in a particular order for each unique individual. To get an idea of the size of the human genome present in each of our cells, consider the following analogy: If the DNA sequence of the human genome were compiled in books, the equivalent of 200 volumes the size of a Manhattan telephone book (at 1000 pages each) would be needed to hold it all.

It would take about 9.5 years to read out loud (without stopping) the 3 billion bases in a person's genome sequence. This is calculated on a reading rate of 10 bases per second, equaling 600 bases/minute, 36,000 bases/hour, 864,000 bases/day, 315,360,000 bases/year.

Storing all this information is a great challenge to computer experts known as bioinformatics specialists. One million bases (called a megabase and abbreviated Mb) of DNA sequence data is roughly equivalent to 1 megabyte of computer data storage space. Since the human genome is 3 billion base pairs long, 3 gigabytes of computer data storage space are needed to store the entire genome. This includes nucleotide sequence data only and does not include data annotations and other information that can be associated with sequence data.

As time goes on, more annotations will be entered as a result of laboratory findings, literature searches, data analyses, personal communications, automated data-analysis programs, and auto annotators. These annotations associated with the sequence data will likely dwarf the amount of storage space actually taken up by the initial 3 billion nucleotide sequence. Of course, that's not much of a surprise because the sequence is merely one starting point for much deeper biological understanding!

Contributions to this answer were made by Morey Parang and Richard Mural formerly of Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and Mark Adams formerly of The Institute of Genome Research. [01/01]

Re:Put one in space

[Tablizer]

This is the sort of thing I'd like to see put on a satalite flying through space, for possible future contact with intelligent species. Then they would have a good chance to study other lifeforms, even if we are long gone.

I think one would need reference info to put the code to use. It is kind of like having the machine code of an app without knowing the machine language.

Watch out.

[hateddamntruth]

""Venter says he plans to offer the service, with the goal of burning individual human's entire DNA sequences onto shiny compact discs. It will cost about $500,000 per person, says the entrepreneurial scientist who helped decode the human genome."

Even though it's you, you know they will copyright it.
And even though it's you, you know they will prevent you from copying and sharing it.

Bad what people do for money.

Re:I wonder...

[Chiasmus_]

Years ago, I don't know where, I heard of someone making "DNA Music". They took A,C,T,G, and mapped them to musical notes: A->A, C->C, T->E, G->G. Fits rather nicely into the key of C major

Dude.. that's an Am7 chord. Your entire song is a "random arpeggio" through a single Am7 chord. Play it really fast and you've got.. an Am7 chord with a lot of vibrato on it.

I can't say I'm overwhelmingly impressed...

Reality Check

[Snork Asaurus]

I'm certain that genetics will have a great deal more to do with the field of medicine in the future. I'm not sure why you bring up drugs, except as an inference (there is no reference to drugs in the item). Anyway the "article" is not about drugs nor is it about Genetics, the science. It is a thinly veiled advertisement for Venter's business; a press release and sales pitch disguised as news. It is designed to appeal to the egos of the rich, while suggesting to everyone that it is for the good of all humankind. Bah.

Re:how big is the entire genome?

[martyn s]

And even better is if there were a standard template for the "average" human genome. Then you can just show where your genes differ, and that will uniquely identify you. And you'll cut the size into almost 1/1000th of storing the full data. Of course, you would have to have the standard human template to compare it to, to get your full genome. I just imagine people going to pharmacies or doctors and they swipe their DNA card to get their full genome. If the pharmacy/doctor kept a standard human template, you can cut down the data each person needs to carry by a huge amount.

Re:Albert Einstein's Genome exists!

[Angry Toad]

Actually it's pretty unlikely, I would guess. It depends strongly upon how the brain has been preserved - if it's in a strong formalin solution then the DNA is largely unrecoverable. There are methods for getting some DNA out of formalin-fixed tissue, but it wouldn't be an easy job.

I don't think the information would be a lot of use anyway until a LOT more is understood about brain development, and that's still assuming that whatever made Einstein's brain so brilliant was completely genetic in anyway. In utero environmental factors and probably lots of other factors we don't even know about yet might play a role. Make a complete DNA copy of Albert and you might just end up with an unusually bright kid, but not a world-class genius.