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Genetic testing used to be very expensive: $3B to sequence the human genome. So Ancestry/23/etc. tried to guess certain properties based on very sparse features
by trott 6y ago
Genetic testing used to be very expensive: $3B to sequence the human genome. So Ancestry/23/etc. tried to guess certain properties based on very sparse features of your genome, which is hard. But today, whole genome sequencing cost is approaching $100. This cost reduction will upend this industry, in my opinion.
- zetazzed 6y agoThe cheapest WGS I can find for consumers is $299 (30x WGS from Nebula). Do you know a cheaper alternative? I'd much rather get a whole genome that I can download rather than the handful of little snips from 23 and me... At $100 I would buy in a sec. Would be a nice motivator for bioinformatics hobby/learning projects too.
- trott 6y agoI saw ads for $149/sample. Probably not available to consumers yet. But the general trend is precipitous decline (10000000x)
- Wronnay 6y agoThat's not the point. The point is: at 19 USD per share you nearly buy at a valuation (8 billion) at which the institutional investors bought Ancestry ($4.7 billion) and 23andMe ($3.5 billion) Also: 23andMe had declining revenue in the past years and does only make around 200 million revenue. You buy a business at a valuation at 8 billion which makes only around 200 million revenue.
- trott 6y agoIt's a good point. I'm just saying that this coming tech revolution is another issue to consider.
- bagacrap 6y agoI'm assuming they're going to try to start monetizing the data they've collected, not that they expect people to keep paying for more and more tests. I wouldn't read too much into the revenue that the old model generated. (People complain that Facebook etc have become big and powerful by sucking up all your data, but at least Zuck didn't charge you for the data.)