Re:23andme: Evil Or The Way Of The Future?
by rms on Saturday November 17, 2007 @12:00PM
(#80955)
$999 is way cheap for 23andme to be selling this, the microarrays cost $650 each before they are analyzed. As per a Techcrunch comment, I suspect they are subsidizing or selling below cost which will probably work out because of the rapidly falling costs in this area.
Re:23andme: Evil Or The Way Of The Future?
by aswanson on Saturday November 17, 2007 @08:02PM
(#81058)
What materials are those arrays built out of? Do they require any special (laser trimmed) components? Special lithography? I smell an industry ripe to be commoditized by a startup.
Re:23andme: Evil Or The Way Of The Future?
by rms on Saturday November 17, 2007 @10:40PM
(#81103)
I'm not sure what it actually takes to manufacture them -- there's definitely some lithography that goes into it but I don't know much beyond that. You might be able to convert an existing microprocessor plant into a DNA microarray plant but i don't really know.
This is the one that I believe 23andme is purchasing in bulk -- or, at least it is the highest end microarray sold by the company 23andme gets their arrays from. http://www.illumina.com/pagesnrn.ilmn?ID=70
Re:23andme: Evil Or The Way Of The Future?
by timr on Saturday November 17, 2007 @03:35PM
(#81012)
23andMe must be paying out the nose for PR. There are at least 2 other well-funded companies in this space, and I don't see those folks getting features in the New York Times....
Re:23andme: Evil Or The Way Of The Future?
by rms on Saturday November 17, 2007 @10:43PM
(#81105)
They have also presented the information in the best way I have ever seen such genetic information presented. This alone makes their product more appealing and more interesting to journalists. Take a look at the copy on this page -- https://www.23andme.com/gen101/variation/speed/ -- it's damn good copy.
Re:23andme: Evil Or The Way Of The Future?
by timr on Saturday November 17, 2007 @11:06PM
(#81115)
True. They've got a couple of science writers on staff, and I'm impressed with their sense of style.
Still, that kind of stuff just doesn't explain a feature article in the New York Times. DeCODE is the big fish in this area, and I've heard next to nothing in the media about them. This seems like a blatant case of good PR.
(with the obvious caveat concerning Google and Sergey and Sergey's wife, of course)
This is the one that I believe 23andme is purchasing in bulk -- or, at least it is the highest end microarray sold by the company 23andme gets their arrays from. http://www.illumina.com/pagesnrn.ilmn?ID=70
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/us/17dna.html?pagewanted=a...
Still, that kind of stuff just doesn't explain a feature article in the New York Times. DeCODE is the big fish in this area, and I've heard next to nothing in the media about them. This seems like a blatant case of good PR.
(with the obvious caveat concerning Google and Sergey and Sergey's wife, of course)