15 November 2018 A new company co-founded by Harvard geneticist George Church wants to let people learn about their genome for free. The blockchain-secured service will sequence people’s genomes without charging a fee, and offer rewards to those who let third parties access their data. Consumers can already get their DNA sequenced by companies like 23andMe and Helix, but it typically costs around $200. If a user consents, their results can be sold to third parties such as pharmaceutical firms, but users don’t receive any compensation or reward for this.
哈佛大学遗传学家乔治·丘奇（George Church）共同创办的一家新公司希望让人们免费了解他们的基因组。区块链安全服务将对人们的基因组进行排序而不收取费用，并为那些让第三方访问其数据的人提供奖励。 消费者已经可以通过像23andMe和Helix这样的公司对他们的DNA进行测序，但通常花费大约200美元。如果用户同意，他们的结果可以出售给制药公司等第三方，但用户不会因此获得任何补偿或奖励。
The service offers to sequence your entire genome for free and secure it using a blockchain. You can then share your genomic data anonymously with companies or research institutes of your choosing, in return for “Nebula credits”. Collecting credits Users will also receive credits for sharing other health information, like whether they have diabetes or arthritis. This should help researchers identify patterns between certain gene variants and diseases, and potentially identify novel drug targets, says the company’s co-founder Dennis Grishin. The credits earned by users will allow them to access other services on the Nebula platform. For example, they could be used to purchase information about a user’s risks of developing certain diseases like breast cancer or Alzheimer’s disease based on their genomic data.
该服务提供免费的整个基因组序列，并使用区块链保护它。然后，您可以与您选择的公司或研究机构匿名共享您的基因组数据，以换取“星云学分”。 收集学分 用户还将获得分享其他健康信息的信用，例如他们是否患有糖尿病或关节炎。该公司的联合创始人丹尼斯格里辛说，这应该有助于研究人员识别某些基因变异和疾病之间的模式，并可能识别出新的药物靶点。 用户获得的积分将允许他们访问星云平台上的其他服务。例如，它们可用于购买有关用户基于其基因组数据发展某些疾病（如乳腺癌或阿尔茨海默病）的风险的信息。