At the Consumer Genetics Show in Boston, MA, today Illumina President and CEO Jay Flatley reveals an iPhone with a conceptualized application called MyGenome. Flatley said a developer at Illumina put the application together in just 10 days.
MyGenome would include access to the user's entire genomic profile and relevant analysis of their variant genome. One section would be "pharmacogenomics." Users could scroll through the drug responses that they are genetically predisposed to having.
MyGenome would allow users to compare their variant genome, which is roughly those genetic differences that make us all individuals, to a family member's variant genome, a friend's or anyone who makes their variant genome public. In this shot, Jay's demo variant genome is compared to itself -- giving a 100 percent match.
MyGenome shows that the user has a 98.2 percent match to his father's variant genome. The application would then let the user explore those differences right from the iPhone. (Again, remember -- this is just a concept app.)
Getting specific: The MyGenome concept application also lets users browse their genome by specific chromosome. The developer added a "spin" option so users could try their luck and land on a random gene to find out more about it. Fun with genomics = the future.
The MyGenome concept application includes device pairing functionality so users can connect to nearby devices via a short-range wireless technology like Bluetooth. The user is connecting to their doctor's iPhone in this slide to transfer genomic data for their doctor's perusal and records.
Of course, why stop at doctors? The MyGenome concept app would let users share their genetic data with friends, family and... famous people?
Illumina demonstrates that if somehow you find yourself within Bluetooth range of Steve Jobs' iPhone or, inexplicably, an iPhone toting Bill Gates -- you would have the ability to send them your genome data. However, Francis Collins, the leader of the Human Genome Project, would probably be more interested and thoughtful in his analysis of your variant genome.
In this demo, somehow the user not only convinced Bill Gates to use an iPhone but also convinced him to accept their genetic data. Alas, their variant genome is only 95.8 percent similar to Bill Gates' data, meaning they are not related.
