Buying and selling DNA

Created by Manuel Beltrán, the artistic and philosophical project Institute of Human Obsolescence was an academic work that gained significant media attention when it began to be perceived as a startup rather than a performance piece, even though it aims to explore new models for compensation and the future of work.

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak with Manuel, who explained the concept behind his project and how the confusion with a real business came about. Although he has hired people through formal channels, the Institute of Human Obsolescence emerged more as an artistic narrative that envisions other ways to keep humans relevant in the face of constant and exponential technological innovation, while also subverting the way we view our own bodies as sacred assets.

While the Institute proposes payment for donating human body heat to be converted into electricity for cryptocurrency mining, the company Nebula Genomics was created by geneticist George Church as a way to compensate individuals who wish to share their genetic data. In a report on the Technology Reviewwebsite, we learn more about this initiative, which is supported by Mirza Cifric, CEO of Veritas Genetics, a company that offers genetic sequencing services for $999.

Today, it is already possible to access your own genetic code by paying for services that perform DNA testing, such as 23andMe, Helix, or Ancestry.com. With customer consent, these companies sell the collected genetic data to third parties, whereas Nebula intends to keep ownership of this information with the individual, allowing them to sell their genetic code themselves and be compensated through a blockchain-based platform.

The white paper released last week points to the company's interest in carrying out this project as a way to support innovation in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. Currently, companies in this field end up buying this type of information from academic institutions or companies like 23andMe, which often costs millions of dollars.

For this reason, Nebula intends to eliminate the middleman in this transaction so that the very companies developing drugs can access this genomic data faster and more cheaply. "The idea is that people aren't just monetizing their genetic data. We will also provide insights, similar to what 23andMe and Ancestry.com do," says Obbad, one of Nebula's co-founders.

But even though this information will be made available for access by biotech and pharmaceutical companies, they will not have ownership of the material; instead, they will be able to "borrow" it. Due to the characteristics of blockchain, it will be possible to maintain the anonymity of the owners of that genetic information, while buyers must be fully transparent at the time of purchase, which will be secured through smart contracts.

However, Nebula has not yet commented on the value of its ICO (initial coin offering). At the moment, the company aims to reduce the price of genetic sequencing to less than $1,000 by working with biotech and pharmaceutical companies, which will subsidize a good portion of these costs. It is also expected that the platform will be open to new users in the coming months.