Chapter 155 (1/2)
Scientists have long found that what dominates human life is actually those clever and cunning selfish genes in the body. Human life and death, birth defects and tumor diseases are all in this seemingly small gene combination.
With the development of gene technology, people are more and more aware of the importance of gene, and there is a saying widely spread, ”in the agricultural era, a country has more and more advantages in cultivated land. In the industrial era, the more oil, mineral resources and other energy resources, the greater the advantages. In the era of life science, having more genetic resources and being able to recognize and use them at the same time means more advantages. ”
In this context, the United States, the European Union, Japan, China and other countries and regions have expended human and material resources and financial resources to establish a large national gene database. In addition, because of the huge benefits of gene data, Google, apple and other enterprises have also established their own gene databases.
The biological information data of these gene databases cover most of the known DNA, RNA and protein data, which is very helpful for gene research.
Now, under the command of Zhang Wei, Beidou helps him to obtain all the data of these gene databases, and then integrates the data to establish a gene database belonging to him, which is also the largest gene database in the world.
The whole process is easy and almost without cost, which is the strength of Beidou.
However, for Zhang Wei, this is just the beginning. He needs to collect more genes.
As far as he knows, gene sequencing costs a lot. In hospitals, it costs 2000-3000 yuan to detect several genes, while the cost of detecting 400-500 genes is as high as 20000 yuan, while in the United States it costs more than 50000 yuan. Because of the high price, most ordinary people have not been tested for genes. That is to say, most people's genes are not collected by his gene database.
Therefore, Zhang Wei needs to find a way to get the genes of these people.
The most effective way is to reduce the price of gene sequencing and make it more convenient.
If we say that it only costs a few hundred yuan, or even no money, to do a whole genome sequencing, we believe that there will be many people willing to participate in the test. Because gene test results can tell people a lot of things.
For example, users can know whether their children are born or not, and whether they have raised their son for the old Wang next door; users can also know their genetic defects, genetic diseases, and know their probability of suffering from a certain disease, so as to take preventive measures; if the family members of users also carry out genetic testing, they can find it in the database, and use this method to We can find relatives who have been separated for many years, and can effectively curb the abduction of children. In addition, users can also know their lineage through the ”ancestor analysis” function, such as whether they are mixed race or pure Chinese, which country the mixed race comes from, and what proportion
As for how to reduce the price, Zhang Wei has already got the idea of developing more advanced gene detection equipment.
In fact, with the progress of technology, the price of gene detection has been falling rapidly. In 2004, when the human genome project was launched, it cost US $1 billion to do a human genome detection. Up to now, it only needs more than 20000 yuan, which is much more powerful than Moore's law.
”Beidou, help me to collect the current situation of gene detection technology.”
Zhang Wei is an action group. When he has an idea, he will put it into action immediately.
”Yes, sir.”
Beidou responded and immediately displayed the relevant information on the virtual screen. ”The international gene sequencing technology has gone through four generations. At present, the mainstream technology in the market is the second generation gene sequencing technology, which takes a long time and costs a lot of money. The third generation gene sequencing technology, that is, single molecule DNA sequencing, can produce results in a few hours and costs a lot It is only about one tenth of the second generation sequencer, but it still has many disadvantages. The fourth generation of gene sequencing technology, namely nanopore technology, is currently the most promising technology. Once put into the market, it is expected to complete the whole genome sequencing at a cost of $100 in a few hours... ”
Zhang Wei's eyes brightened after reading it. The fourth generation of gene sequencing technology has been able to meet his requirements. It costs 100 dollars, or more than 600 yuan. The price is not too cheap. The only consideration is that the technology is widely patented. But it's not a big problem. As long as you are willing to spend money, are you afraid that you can't buy a patent? What can be solved with money is not an issue for him.