Sequencing the DNA of Local Innovation

A little over a week ago, legendary venture capitalist Esther Dyson explained her reasons for being one of the first 10 people to have their genomes sequenced—and made publicly available—for Harvard Medical School professor George Church’s Personal Genome Project. Yesterday, Church revealed all but one of the rest of the folks on that list. (One volunteer evidently wished to remain anonymous.)

Blaine Bettinger at The Genetic Genealogist has nice bios of all the named volunteers. Not surprisingly, several members of the local innovation community are included:

Keith Batchelder, founder and CEO of Genomic Healthcare Strategies, a personalized-medicine consulting firm in Charlestown

John D. Halamka, whose many appointments include CIO at Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Harvard Clinical Research Institute

Stanley N. Lapidus, president and CEO of gene-sequencing-technology firm Helicos in Kendall Square

—James L. Sherley, the controversial ex-MIT stem-cell scientist

—and, of course, Church himself.

Author: Rebecca Zacks

Rebecca is Xconomy's co-founder. She was previously the managing editor of Physician's First Watch, a daily e-newsletter from the publishers of New England Journal of Medicine. Before helping launch First Watch, she spent a decade covering innovation for Technology Review, Scientific American, and Discover Magazine's TV show. In 2005-2006 she was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. Rebecca holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Brown University and a master's in science journalism from Boston University.