ISTOCK, ALLANSWARTA growing number of companies are developing business models that center on consumers selling their genetic or health data, according to a report published yesterday (June 3) in The San Diego Union-Tribune. California-based startups Luna DNA and Nebula Genomics have built platforms to offer pay-to-access information to researchers from universities, medical institutes, and pharmaceutical companies—and turn a profit for the customer.
“There is currently little incentive for consumers to contribute their DNA and health information to a third party database,” Luna DNA explains on its website. The company’s solution, it continues, is a “community owned database that rewards individuals shares in the database for contributing their DNA and other medical information. . . . The proceeds flow back to the community like dividends as researchers pay to access the data for discovery.”
Both companies, along with similar efforts by Hong Kong–based Longenesis and Russian project Zenome, aim to meet the rising demand for biological data for everything from basic medical research to the development of drugs and diagnostics. Most incorporate the highly secure technology blockchain and will pay their customers in a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin.
...
