DNA – A Portrait of the Past, A Glimpse of the Future

I read a brilliant article last night, written by Dawn Field, PhD, the author of Biocode: The New Age of Genomics (OUP, 2015). Dr. Field is a Senior Research Fellow at the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, a Research Associate of the Biodiversity Institute of Oxford at Oxford University and a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution. She is a founder of the Genomic Standards Consortium, the Genomic Observatories Network and Ocean Sampling Day. In other words, she’s absolutely brilliant. 

In Dr. Field’s article she discusses the growth of Genomics.  I found it very intriguing that Dr. Field, an academic, went on to discuss how the evolution of this industry can affect the domain name space.

I previously registered a couple of Genomics related domain names, such as: GenomicApp.com and GenomicsApps.com, I was inspired to register a few more, last night, after reading her article. 

Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Field’s article:

“A peek under the hood of the DNA URL land-grab reveals many are already speculating on this future. The URL ‘genomical.com’ boasts a price tag of $15k. The number and variety of other URLs that are already claimed and up for investment re-sale is shocking.”

I encourage you to read Dr. Field’s article.  The article is located at: http://blog.oup.com/2015/08/genomically-speaking/.

I imagine most of you, who are reading this article, have not yet opted to have your DNA tested.  I recently tested my DNA through AncestryDNA.com and the results gave me a greater insight as to who I am.

I must admit that, in he weeks leading up to receiving my results, a number of thoughts crossed my mind.  Will my heritage be far different than what I expected?  Will I discover that I may have been adopted?  Do I have a significant percentage of Asian ethnicity?  The last thought is based on my great fondness for Asian culture and cuisine.  As it turns out, my ethnicity estimate did not show any evidence of Asian ancestry although, to my surprise, I am 1% Polynesian.

This type of testing allows you to go so far as to download your raw DNA data.  I downloaded mine, all neatly contained in a 19Mb .txt file.  DNA data in hand, I wanted to interpret my results.   With great difficulty, I was able to locate a website where I could cross reference some of my genes with a number of maladies and physical characteristics.  I cross-referenced some of my genes at SNPedia.com and I was fascinated by the the information gleaned.

Some domain name investors would very much like to go back in time to the glorious ‘90s.  While it may appear that we can not go back in time, in actuality we can.  The best way to go back in time is by looking forward.  Perhaps, one day, we will be able to access, understand and benefit from our genomic profiles as easily as we access our email today.