This one's for Eric.A German nonprofit, called MyMicrobes, is hoping you'll want to get your gut bacteria's genomes sequenced. It's expensive, but you'll get access to one of the most exclusive social networks around, where people worldwide can, um, talk about their gastrointestinal difficulties with like-minded people. Two grand seems cheap when we put it like that! [...] It's expensive to start--it'll cost about $2,100 to get your gut bacteria sequenced, which involves mailing a fecal sample to Germany (seriously).
I don't know about you, but I mail fecal samples to Germany all the time!
Genomera is doing a similar thing, building social network links from your personal genome so that scientists of all types can conduct focused therapeutic trials on motivated populations with genomic similarities. I think 23andme is doing a little of that, too.
"I don't know about you, but I mail fecal samples to Germany all the time!"
The best part is you don't even need a reason.
[StanMarsh]Dude, what the f**k is wrong with German people?[/StanMarsh]