What do you think of this group effort to rewrite DNA code?
Natalia
Crowdsourcing cure faster: scientist
Geneticist says the more people researching, the better
Shannon Proudfoot, Postmedia News
Published: Friday, December 31, 2010
A Canadian geneticist's plans to crowdsource a cure for breast cancer is
among the things being forecasted for 2011 and beyond by the World
Future Society.
The Washington, D.C.-based think-tank releases an annual report of the
most intriguing glimpses of the future gathered from researchers,
futurists and big thinkers over the past year, including a Toronto-based
geneticist who's working on a novel way to seek a cure for cancer.
Andrew Hessel co-founded Pink Army Co-operative in 2009 because he was
frustrated by the glacial pace of big pharmaceutical development and
convinced lives could be saved faster with many brains working
collectively.
He's hoping to attract 2,500 people who will pay $20 each for a share in
the non-profit Pink Army, and he's collected about 420 mini-investors so
far. The seed money will fund the first steps in what he envisions as a
crowdsourced cure tailored for each person's cancer and powered by
synthetic biology, a fast-growing area of genetics that lets researchers
rewrite DNA code instead of just cutting and pasting.
"I do this not because I'm running a lab or want to make a million
dollars; I'm doing it because it's such a powerful technology and almost
nobody knows about it," he says.
"The only way you're ever going to beat cancer is, first of all, strip
the profit motive out of it -- that's just crazy."
Profits and patents have "siloed" cancer researchers and companies who
jealously guard their innovations rather than building on each other's
work and making significant strides in cancer treatment, Hessel says.
He chose breast cancer as a starting point because the disease has such
a powerful advocacy and fundraising community, and once Pink Army has
enough funding to get off the ground, he plans to open up the research
and design process to a Wiki-type model.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2010
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