Perhaps not yet, but the headline Google takes stake in genomics info startup leapt out in my feed reader this morning.
The company, 23andMe, promises “to help you make sense of your own genetic information”. Early days, but I’d like to see some of the power of Google focused on problems in genomics and bioinformatics.
I am sure they are looking at it. I’ve heard from at least a couple of people in Bay area pharma/biotech companies of “discussions” with google. I am especially interested in Google using its experience in scaling and applying it to the whole bioinformatics/medical informatics space.
The fact that this is the company of the wife of one of the Google founders makes the deal a bit murky. Also it looks like the money was mostly used to pay back a personal loan to husband. It would be great to see Google use their potential to do more for bioinformatics and personalized medicine but that could have done it in a more neutral way.
I found this link http://valleywag.com/tech/google/anne-wojcickis-wedding-present-262668.php more on the lines of what Pedro said. Another Wolfowitz happening heheheh.
Yes, I steered clear of the “Mrs Google” aspect but – conflict of interest anyone? This particular example does look more like a small, private business transaction than a serious attempt to break into genomics. Let’s hope that Google do have some aspirations to build tools for science.