Microarray and sequencing specialist Illumina Inc. has entered the consumer genomics game, announcing in June a direct-to-consumer (DTC) personal genomic sequencing service. The equipment provider is treading carefully into this new space, playing to its core strength in instrumentation and also distancing itself from regulators by partnering with other players to handle any secondary data interpretation and dialog with customers about traits of interest and the thorny issues surrounding calculation of disease risk, at the customer’s option. However, cautious or not, by reaching out directly to the public, the move does turn on its head the traditional notion of first developing a life sciences technology for the research community, vetting it there, then moving on to more regimented clinical applications.
DNA sequencing, of course, is already used in research applications, and it is the growth of data and markers from...
