from the San Diego Union-Tribune
Need a little extra money? You’ll soon be able to sell and rent your DNA
By Gary Robbins
A technician at a Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment lab in Denver extracts DNA for whole genome sequencing. Such testing could revolutionize everything from medical care to agriculture. (P. Solomon Banda / AP)
Feel like earning a little extra money and maybe improving your health at the same time?
Consumers will soon be able to sell or rent their DNA to scientists who are trying to fight diseases as different as dementia, lupus and leukemia.
Bio-brokers want to collect everything from someone’s 23andMe and Ancestry.com gene data to fully sequenced genomes.
The data would be sold or rented to biomedical institutes, universities and pharmaceutical companies, generating money for consumers who share their genetic secrets.