DNA Guide's personal genome management software demonstrated at the Health 2.0 conference

Oct 12 2009

DNA Guide presented a live demo of its unique personal genome management software on the main stage of the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco on October 7^th. DNA Guide’s software is based on an issued US patent (US Patent: 7089498) whereby the values in a persons DNA are used for security and then Geographic Information Systems technology is utilized to place massive genetic datasets in a visual format - effectively opening up DNA navigation to a whole new audience.

The demo included a personal Map of the genome with all the chromosomes of a person with map layers added for their sequence and SNP data. The image then had a coordinate system assigned to it with the full pan and zoom functionality of a type of Google earth for the cell. At the zoom in level each individual DNA base pair is its own programmable graphic object.

In a typical use case scenario individuals could manage the security over their genetic data by creating selection sets of markers and then clicking a button to specify who to open or close access to. People could also join or leave datasets, destroy data or be launched into a discussion group with individuals all having the same genetic variation at a given location.

The company will initially offer enterprise software solutions for organizations with in-house genetic datasets that would benefit from the ability to spatially analyze and thematically map massive genetic datasets. The company’s founder, Alice Rathjen, hopes that eventually people will upload SNP data and a whole series of consumer based applications will be developed using the software’s API that interact with an individuals DNA.