If you’ve got $48,000 kicking around, and you want to know what flaws exist in your body’s genetic composition, Illumina (ILMN) has a deal for you.
With a doctor’s prescription, the company, which makes systems to analyze genetic variations, will sequence your genome. That means it will catalogue, decode and analyze your body’s basic building blocks.
With that information, you can see which of your genes, if any, are defective. And with that knowledge, you can decide what to do about your possible predispositions to diseases that include cancer, multiple sclerosis or Alzheimer’s, among many.
Illumina, based in San Diego, Calif., grabbed a few headlines recently after revealing that Hollywood star Glenn Close was one of 10 people for whom the firm had done complete genome sequencing. The company did not respond to an interview request.
Close said in a statement that she was motivated by schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in her family, “conditions thought to have a genetic underpinning.”
– from Investors