The Promise and Peril of #DNADay
We deserve better than 23 & Me and Ancestry
I think about this photo a lot. Google cofounder Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki seemed to herald in a new future for genomics. Wojcicki was a girl boss and a founder! “Will Google buy 23&Me?” every investor ever wanted to know.
That is, before Brin got caught having an affair with the Google glass lass and Wojicki dated A-Rod. She even broke up with her cofounder, Linda Avey. Dramarama!
Now Barry Diller, who isn’t at all gay no way!, is running casinos and Tinder and being investigated for insider trading Microsoft while Rupert Murdoch and his Chinese now ex wife (but still) tried to overthrow democracy. Oh, and Harvey Weinstein in prison and has lots of friends who are Israeli spies. Jeffrey Epstein, who also invested but isn’t pictured, is dead.
But I think a lot about how 23 & Me, backed by the very Chinese venture fund Sequoia, was collecting the DNA of famous people— and then turning to that oh so pressing need of backing conman like Sam Bankman-Fried.
Yes, Gen Xers — with their history of exploitation and weird ties to China — turned out not to be good custodians of our precious DNA data.
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We don’t have to settle for this sort of thing. We don’t have to accept the Chinese illegally collecting people’s DNA all over the world during the Covid times.
Genomic testing has become routine and cheap but it is no less miraculous, especially when applied to the most pressing needs. And we have quite a number of needs — not least of which is understanding why it is that, contrary to the promises of the Human Genomic Project, life expectancy has gone.
Surely genetics plays a role in all our social ills — from mass shootings, to opioid addiction, to violent behavior. But our genes are mere possibilities. It’s what we choose to do with the information that they contain which will herald a new era of American scientific splendor.
At Traitwell — where I serve as cofounder and CEO — we are ultimately building the Bloomberg terminal of DNA, where every genome wide associated study is turned into software and ultimately actionable, where a biobank of all us can be used for the betterment of all of us.
At Othram they’re making it so that violent serial crime is impossible by using the latest techniques in genomic genealogy.
This is big. But it could get bigger still. It could be massive.
But only if we work together. It was the Anglo-American alliance which decoded the human genome and it’ll be that same alliance that extends its benefits to the whole human race.
President Bill Clinton gave one of his best ever speeches on genetics alongside Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2000.
"Today's announcement represents more than just a triumph of science and reason. After all, when Galilleo discovered he could use the tools of mathematics and mechanics to understand the motion of celestial bodies he felt he had learnt the language in which God created the universe. Today we are learning the language of how God created life. We are again ever more in awe for the complexity and beauty and the wonder of God's divine and sacred gift. With this profound new knowledge mankind is on the verge of gaining immense new power to heal. Genome science will have a real impact on our lives and even more on the lives of our children."
I remember where I was when I heard this speech — age 11 at my grandparents, with my father— and I knew then that I was to be involved. Soon I was. I knew then that dreams and hopes and ideas weren’t enough.
We need will. We need scale.
We need to sweep the foreign influence from our major genetics companies, like Illumina, 23 & Me, and Ancestry where Chinese-compromised CEOs lead us down ruinous intellectual cul de sacs and toward genetically snitching on ourselves.
We need to rescue these companies yesterday. We need to do it together. Once again, the world needs us to act in the common good.
Prime Minister Tony Blair put it well way back in 2000.
"With the power of this discovery comes the responsibility to use it wisely. As with the greatest scientific achievements the ethical and moral questions raised by this astonishing breakthrough are profound. We all share a duty to ensure that the common property of the genome is used freely for the common good of the human race."
A duty, yes, but we have also a special joy to share all that genomics has to offer with those living, dead, and not yet born. It is in this stewardship that we might have our greatest meaning.
This DNA Day, let’s make genetics special again.
After, don’t we have a special relationship?
